Shy teacher full of shame over his 'text affair' hanged himself

A POPULAR deputy headteacher at a village primary school was wracked with guilt and hanged himself after his wife discovered that he had a "text affair", an inquest heard.

Father-of-two Jim Featherstone, 57, had been married to wife Margaret for 36 years and was "well-liked and respected" at Upton Primary School, near Pontefract.

Just weeks after she had undergone gruelling 18-week treatment for breast cancer, Mrs Featherstone discovered her husband had been involved in a "text relationship" with another woman.

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In a statement read at the inquest, she said: "I was devastated with this. It had a massive effect on my health and a massive impact on our relationship.

"It was very unsettling and a very distressing period for us both."

A month later when Mrs Featherstone, 58, also a teacher, went for further hospital treatment she noticed a dramatic change in her husband.

She said: "He was very upset and said he realised he had been stupid by involving himself with this woman.

"He reassured me it would not happen again.

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"He seemed to put all his efforts into reassuring me we could get back to some form of normality."

However, Mr Featherstone became a "changed" man from then on until his death five months later, his wife said.

The normally shy, quiet and reserved husband developed a "massive amount of guilt" for betraying his wife.

She said: "He became self-loathing and felt totally full of shame, remorse and enormous regret. He expressed those feelings on almost a daily basis."

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Mrs Featherstone said that, combined with his long-standing depressive illness and knowing what she had gone through, it affected him badly. She said: "He became so guilt-ridden and remorseful it is almost indescribable. I believe this whole thing became too overwhelming for him."

After returning from lunch with friends, Mrs Featherstone found her husband hanged on October 5 at the couple's detached home in Adwick-le-Street, near Doncaster.

Deputy coroner Fred Curtis read from a statement Mrs Featherstone gave to police.

In that statement, she said her husband had been diagnosed with depression but there was "no indication at all" that he would kill himself.

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Of her husband she said: "He was quiet, a shy-natured man, very much a private man. As a couple we were very close."

Mr Curtis told the hearing in Doncaster: "He was also by all

accounts consumed with guilt over a relationship which Mrs Featherstone described as a texting relationship with another woman.

"Given that he was a very private man this does seem to have been completely out of character.

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"Once she knew about this he appears to have been consumed with guilt and felt shame and remorse to a serious degree."

The deputy coroner said this exacerbated Mr Featherstone's depression and resulted in him taking his own life.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Mr Curtis said: "This was a very determined and serious attempt to take his own life through hanging.

" It was not some call for help."

After Mr Featherstone's death, school headteacher Paul Franklin said: "Jim was a well-liked and respected teacher and out hearts go out to his family, particularly his wife and two boys, who must be suffering terribly at this time.

"He had been at Upton for a considerably long time and was a much-loved member of staff."