Then Meet you on the other side": Woman accidentally hangs herself in misguided bid to stop boyfriend from committing suicide

A woman accidentally killed herself while trying to stop her troubled boyfriend from committing suicide.

Support worker Corinne Hayes, 23, feared Brian Marshall, 33, was about to commit suicide so she sent a message saying if he commits suicide so would she.

She wrote:  "If you are going to do it, so am I - meet you on the other side".

Corinne was found hanged at his apartment in Oldham, Greater Manchester in June last year, the day before she was due to attend Parklife music festival. 

 

Coroner Joanne Kearsley ruled that the 23-year-old did not intend to kill herself. The coroner said she believed the text Corrine sent was part of a "very misguided attempt" for Mr Marshall, 33, to seek help for his mental health problems.

Her inquest heard the couple started a relationship in September the previous year, which soon sparked concerns from her relatives.

Mum Mandy Hayes told the hearing in Heywood: "Corrine was kind and sociable and had a heart of gold - she was everyone's best friend. She had been diagnosed with anxiety but I put that down to the way she was being treated. I thought Brian Marshall didn't treat Corinne very well. She was paying for everything for him and said that she would move with him. It felt like he was doing it to get her away from us. She knew what he was like but she loved him."

She continued: "I last spoke to her when she was going out with friends that night. She had plans to go to Parklife festival the next day with her friend Sarah. She had just got a promotion at work and everything to look forward to. As far as I knew she had never attempted to self harm and she was always so happy. Anything that was said about Brian she would just brush off because she knew I didn't like him. They had been trying for a baby but he used to get her down by the way he spoke to her about it. She wanted children but not at that moment."

 

On June 9, Corinne visited Brian Marshall's flat where she discovered he had thrown a party without inviting her. They argued and the party came to an abrupt end before the couple left the flat and went separate ways. Messages read out at the hearing showed the row continued over text message with Corinne telling Brian in one exchange: "If you are going to do something I couldn't hack it. I couldn't live without you."

Another said: "What about your kids, what about your nan? I am going to have to tell her everything, I can't deal with this."

Deputy Inspector Kenny Blain told the hearing police received a call from Marshall who reported finding Corinne in his flat while he was with two friends in the early hours on June 10. He said Corrine had been drinking with a friend the previous evening before she arrived at his flat where they instantly began to argue.

He told the inquest: "It appeared that Brian had got into her head and had made her very upset and distressed."

Around two hours before Corinne's body was found, she sent a text to Marshall which read: "I tell you what, if you are going to do it, so am I. Meet you on the other side."

Det Insp Blain added: "I believe that Brian may have expressed a wish to harm himself that night."

Marshall has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and did not attend the inquest. Recording a conclusion of misadventure, coroner Joanne Kearsley said Corrine had so much to live for and she did not intend to take her life.