Elderly couple found dead after entering 'suicide pact'

A devoted couple in their eighties committed suicide together in order to avoid leaving their home of 40 years to go into care, an inquest has heard.

The bodies of former naval commander David Brittain, 86, and his 84-year-old wife Bridget, a retired secretary, were discovered by their cleaner at their home in Yelverton, Devon, last November. Notes to loved ones as well as instructions on suicide methods were found nearby.

A hearing in Barnstaple concluded they had voluntarily taken their own lives.

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The inquest was told that the couple had become increasingly frail in recent years and Bridget had received what the coroner described as "bad news, healthwise". However, they were determined not to leave their home and go into care.

The Brittains, who had been married for 61 years, were "proud people" and "very private", the Plymouth Herald reports.

In 2010, they joined Exit, an organisation aimed at the terminally ill which provides members with practical information on how to take their own lives painlessly and effectively.

Their daughter, Judith, said: "Our father said, 'I will leave this house in a coffin.' We did not want them to do it."

She added that her parents had not mentioned suicide for the last 18 months to avoid upsetting their family.

However, despite evidence that the couple had been considering taking their own lives for at least five years, their other daughter, Susan Keeling, suspected the final decision to go through with the act was spontaneous. When the bodies of her parents were discovered, she said, the table was partly laid for breakfast.

Keeling speculated that her father might have fallen and that, with her mother unable to move him, the pair decided to end their lives. David had recently fallen while at the ballet.

In a joint statement, the couple's daughters said the deaths were a "massive shock" but that their parents had "depended and relied on each other" and "did not want to be apart".

"There is some consolation they are still together," they said.