Mother, 49, hanged herself a week after suicide of daughter, 29, following end of her four-year relationship

Charlotte Dunne, 29, was said to be distraught after her "tempestuous" long-term romance with her girlfriend broke down in May.

Her mother Beverley Dickenson, 49, identified her body – and days later was found dead by the same method in the grounds of Wilton House stately home where she worked as a gardener.

Details of the double tragedy were heard at an inquest attended by family and friends today in Salisbury, Wilts.

Charlotte's four-and-a-half-year relationship with Toyah Goodenough had been rocked by fights over alcohol and drug abuse and online gambling and ended after a stormy row, a coroner heard.

On one occasion Charlotte had been arrested accused of causing actual bodily harm in a row over unpaid wages at the cleaning firm where Toyah was her boss.


Toyah said in a statement to the coroner: "We were both as bad as each other. She told me she wasn't in a good place and I wanted to stop it and I thought that would help her.

"I got a message from her on June 9, but none of these indicated that she would commit suicide.

"I have deleted these but I know that Charlotte's mother had messaged her in the past and said she was going to kill herself."

Charlotte's brother Joseph Dunne broke down with emotion as he told the hearing of finding her body on June 10.

Choking back tears, he said of her break-up weeks earlier: "She just seemed all right. She seemed to be coping.


"I had spoken to her on the Saturday night and she was coming round to mine for a meal at noon on Sunday.

"When she didn't arrive I assumed she was still asleep so I just let her be.

"I then got concerned went around to the house at about 7pm and the back door was unlocked.

"The house was in darkness. There was burnt stuff outside, cards and the like."

A note showed she was "contemplating the end of her life," Joseph said.

Beverley's husband David Dickenson, who ran a taxi firm and lived with her on the Wilton estate, said she was hit hard by her daughter's suicide and "was very, very upset."


He told the inquest: "I did worry about her and spoke about it and she said she wouldn't do anything because she had Joe and her the granddaughter.

"She was making plans for Charlotte's funeral and things like that. She was worried about the cost for example but she was coping with it.

"She collected some of Charlotte's belongings and put them all in a spare room to start with and then she went through it the night she died."

Mr Dickenson said his wife seemed fine when he left her going through Charlotte's things on the evening of June 16.

At 6am she was not in bed and he went looking.

He said: "As I looked down the stairs there was the remains of a bottle of wine.

"The shed light was on and that is when I found her. There was no note."

Assistant Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg recorded verdicts of suicide in both cases.

He said of Charlotte: "It is such a shame she couldn't see see how many people have attended here, clearly those that loved her, and it is a tragedy that you all share."

Picturesque Wilton House, home of the 18th Earl of Pembroke, has been used as a filming location in Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley, Mrs Brown starring Judi Dench, The Crown, The Young Victoria, The Madness of King George and Tomb Raider.



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