Father ‘agreed a split’, then three children stabbed

Ceri Fuller is said to have “understood” and talked over the split with his wife Ruth before leaving their home with their three children in July last year.

Mr Fuller, 35, Samuel, 12, Rebecca, eight, and Charlotte, seven, were found dead four days later in a disused quarry at Pontesbury Hill, Shropshire.

Tests found that all three children had suffered severe neck wounds thought to have been inflicted with a hunting knife.

Mr Fuller, a production line supervisor at a paper mill, was found dead at the foot of a 60ft cliff at the quarry with a fractured skull and other injuries.

In a statement read to the inquest, Mrs Fuller’s sister, Joanna Ballard, said she had been called to the couple’s home in Milkwall, Gloucestershire, at about 6.30pm on July 12.

Mrs Ballard was told that her sister had tried to kill herself and, in her statement, said an out-of-hours GP visited to assess her sister, who had sent text message of a loving nature to her husband earlier that day.

The inquest heard that Mrs Fuller had also sent “flirty” text messages to her tutor on an Open University humanities course, Mark Lindley-Highfield.

In her statement, Mrs Ballard said: “She had told me that shehad a romantic crush on Mark, but she saw it as a schoolgirl crush and had no intention to take it any further.”

Mrs Fuller was taken to hospital in Gloucester at 10.30pm on July 12, where she told her sister that she and Mr Fuller had not had a row, the inquest heard. In a “rare moment of lucidity” Mrs Fuller then confirmed that she and her husband were splitting up, claiming that “they had talked and he understood,” Mrs Ballard added.

In verbal evidence to the inquest, Mrs Ballard said that in the early hours of July 13, her sister stared into her eyes and told her: “I think that Ceri killed Rebecca.”

In written evidence submitted to the inquest, Mr Lindley-Highfield said he had sent six texts to Mrs Fuller on July 11 and 12 last year, receiving five messages in reply.

The inquest into the deaths heard that a fingerprint matching Mr Fuller was found on a bloodstained Bowie-type knife at the scene.

Pathologist Dr Alexander Kolar said all three children suffered a “large incised wound” to the throat.

During harrowing evidence, Dr Kolar confirmed that Samuel and Rebecca had also suffered “defensive” injuries to their hands.

Rebecca had been stabbed five times in the chest, and her sister had suffered four chest wounds, the inquest was told.

The hearing continues.