Spurned ex-soldier kills wife's mother in savage attack

Argentinian former soldier Sebastian Mercante forced his way into a house in Huddersfield as he looked for his estranged wife Claire Tootill, 31.

Inside he found Claire's mother and brother, and savagely attacked them both, inflicting fatal wounds on 66 year-old Carol Berry.

Then Mercante, who had flown from his home in Tenerife, drove to a car park in Manchester and wrote F*** U Claire, before throwing himself from the top floor.

The inquest heard a rucksack found on Mercante contained knives, cable ties, duct tape and a balaclava.

Today his wife's brother Andrew Field described the attack last March.

In a written statement read to the Huddersfield court, he said his mother had noticed that a security light had gone on outside the house.

He said: "I immediately become suspicious because no-one comes to the house unless they call first and no-one had knocked on the door.

"I picked up one of my golf clubs for my own protection in case it was a prowler outside. Before I had a chance to push down on the door handle it was pushed down from the outside, so fast that it knocked me back.

"As he was half way through the door I began to push back to keep him out. I placed both my hand over his face and tried to gouge out his eyes. I was doing everything I could to keep him out but he was so strong.

"I then had a weird sensation in my neck. I felt air coming out of my neck and saw I had blood on my jumper. I knew I had been stabbed with something.

"I then heard my mum shout 'Sebastian, stop it'. It was only then I realised who this man was. I shouted, 'Mum, he's stabbed me'."

He said his mother, who was in the hallway during the struggle, told him to go and get a neighbour. The last time he saw her, she was struggling with the thug - who knifed her while Andrew tried to seek help.

Mr Field, 36, who did not attend the inquest, was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, where he was treated for the injuries inflicted on him by Mercante's stabbing and slashing, before he asked to see his mother.

In his statement taken just a couple of days after the attack, he said: 'I could see that one of the curtains to a cubicle was slightly open and that the doctor and the nurse were trying to get the person on the bed to breathe again.

"I was later told that my mum had died. I am absolutely devastated and can't believed it has happened.

"I can't think of any reason why Sebastian Mercante has done this, other than that Claire has left him and he may be jealous that she has a new relationship."

Claire, who attended the hearing, had asked her 40 year-old husband for a divorce in December 2008 after a row while her mother was visiting the couple the previous July.

The inquest was told that Mrs Berry's death was caused by three stab wounds to her neck, chest and abdomen and that she had also suffered defensive injuries to her hand. Coroner Roger Whittaker recorded her death as an unlawful killing and Mercante's as suicide.

Mr Whittaker said: "When something as terrible and tragic as this happens, clearly the family are devastated and inevitably will remain devastated for a long, long time. I offer to you, the family, my continuing sympathy as you try to come to terms with what has happened."