Blinded Pc told wife ‘I’ll hang myself during video call with you’, inquest told

But the family liaison officer who was told about the “bizarre” threat did not believe he would go through with it, she told the hearing.

The 44-year-old had been left blind and fighting for his life after gunman Raoul Moat shot him twice while he was on the run in July 2010.

He went on to win national praise for the way he tackled his new disability, creating the Blue Lamp Foundation to help emergency workers injured at work.

But in February 2012 he was found hanged at the three-storey townhouse in Blyth, Northumberland, into which he had moved following a domestic incident with his wife.

Giving evidence the police liaison officer who worked with the Rathband family after he was shot said he made the threat to his estranged wife, Kath.

But Detective Constable Alison Brown, who said her professional relationship with the family eventually developed into a personal one, said she never thought he would actually kill himself.

“She said he was thinking of hanging himself and would put his phone on to Facetime so she could see him doing it,” she said.

“I thought it was such a bizarre thing to say. Saying you’re going to hang yourself and do it on Facetime is bizarre.

“David had never said to me personally that he had any suicidal thoughts.

“For someone to say that, I just thought it was an awful thing to say. I was concerned for his well-being and his mental state but I did not think he would kill himself.”

Yesterday Mrs Rathband told of how her husband had several affairs with women, but his last, with Lisa French, a survivor of the 7/7 London bombing, ended their marriage.

Mrs Rathband found out the friendship which started on Twitter had become more serious just days before her husband flew
to Australia to visit his twin, Darren.

Mrs Rathband told the inquest he could not understand why she would not take him back, and would call her up to 100 times a day.

Mr Rathband would send abusive messages and would sometimes threaten to self-harm. But his wife said the pattern was for him to send unpleasant messages to her but to be calm and rational when she spoke directly to him.

The inquest continues.