MAKING NEWS

Thu, 14 August 2008
Businessman cancels life insurance before decapitation
Aug 14 2008 by Rachael Misstear, Neath Guardian

A WEALTHY Neath businessman decapitated himself after running up “extortionate” debts to get back at his estranged wife.

Gerald Mellin, 54, tied one end of a rope to a tree, then climbed into his open-top Aston Martin DB7 with the other end around his neck.

He then accelerated into one of Swansea’s main roads and met his grisly end as other drivers watched in horror.

An inquest heard that shortly before his death Mr Mellin had cancelled his life insurance policy.

He had also taunted his estranged wife Mirrielle, 33, by showing her the rope in the boot of his £90,000 car.

Mother-of-two Mirrielle told the inquest: “We had split up and been to court.

“He wanted me to walk away from the farmhouse and the business and leave me with nothing.

“We met in a pub after a court hearing and he started having a tantrum.

“As we made our way back to our cars he opened the boot and said: ‘There’s my rope, that’s what I’m going to kill myself with’. I told him to grow up and give me the rope. But he just laughed.”

Swansea Coroner’s Court heard that she and Mr Mellin had been in court the day before his death, where she was awarded an extra £100 a week from him to help with the running of her house.

Mr Mellin had been staying at various hotels in the Swansea area after moving out of the family home.

Mrs Mellin said that on the fateful evening she received a text from him saying: “Congratulations XXX”. It was the last time she heard from him.

Mr Mellin owned a gym and sun tanning centre called Bodytalk and his wife worked there as a beautician.

The inquest heard the pair had both been married before when they wed in 2002.

But they had split up in 2007 and Mirrielle continued to live in their luxury farmhouse in the village of Crumlin, near Neath.

She said Mr Mellin had self-harmed and made several attempts on his life during their short and “horrendous” marriage, but she always believed it was “a cry for help” rather than a real attempt at suicide.

She told the court: “Our marriage was horrendous most of the time. After we split he phoned me and said he wanted to do a deal with selling the business.

“He had been to see an accountant but the way he did it was all wrong.

“I said it was about time we stopped arguing and started behaving like adults.

“That was when I met him in the pub and he showed me the rope.”

She added: “He would say suicidal thoughts, but I never actually believed that he would do anything. It was always a cry for help with Gerald. That’s why I find it hard to believe this time around.”

She said she did not know about the financial pressure he was under until after his death when she discovered he was in “an extortionate amount of debt”.

The inquest in Swansea heard that after her husband’s death she discovered he had cancelled a life insurance policy which would have paid out to her.

She said: “He ran up an extortionate amount of debt. I’ve got to sell the farmhouse now, just to pay the debts.

“Gerald created the debt because he always said if I left him he would leave me with nothing.”

Detective Constable Ceri John said records showed Mr Mellin was being treated for depression at the time of his death and was first seen by a psychiatrist at the age of four for anxiety.

Mr John also described the gruesome scene of the suicide near the seafront in Swansea last September.

He told the hearing: “He had attached a rope to a tree, then attached the other end to his neck and then driven off at speed.

“He had made a deliberate and concerted effort to end his own life in a manner most unusual.”

Officers found his headless body still in on the leather driving seat of the car with his head on the back seat.

An eyewitness told the hearing how the Aston Martin passed her just after midnight on Mumbles Road on September 14.

Alison Anniah said: “It got my attention because it was going so slowly.

“As the car passed us I saw the body had no head.”

A suicide note, detailing his funeral wishes, was found in a bumbag he was wearing when an ambulance crew came across the scene.

The cause of death was given as decapitation.

The hearing was told there was only a small amount of alcohol in his blood and he was on anti-depressants.

Coroner Phillip Rogers said: “There is nothing to suggest this was anything other than a deliberate act.

“On the evidence I have heard – notwithstanding Mrs Mellin’s view of her husband’s actions in the past and on this occasion that this was a cry for help – I’m satisfied no one could have done what Mr Mellin did without realising the consequence of such an action would be his own death.”

The coroner recorded a verdict that Mr Mellin took his own life.

WalesOnline.co.uk

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/south-wales-news/neath/2008/08/14/businessman-cancels-life-insurance-before-decapitation-91466-21517457/

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