Inquest: 'Mother racked with guilt' (From South Wales Guardian)

Inquest: 'Mother racked with guilt'

1:00pm Thursday 13th September 2012 in News

THE sister of Welsh rugby legend Ieuan Evans leapt to her death after becoming “racked with guilt” over a lesbian love affair, an inquest has been told.

Non Thomas, originally from Pontarddulais, sent her husband a text message pleading with him to take care of their children before plunging 150 feet off cliffs near Bridgend.

Mrs Thomas, a reader at Swansea University’s College of Human and Health Sciences, became tormented over the affair with a colleague.

The 45-year-old told her husband she was suffering from “terrible guilt” over what she had done.

When her husband confronted her last year, she told him “I’m struggling with who I am”.

Mr Thomas told the inquest at Cardiff: “She became racked with guilt and ashamed of what she had done.”

In the days before her death she sent her lover a note saying: “I can’t cope any more. I’m crippled with guilt. It’s killing me.”

On April 11, Mr Thomas received a text message from his wife saying she was lying on a clifftop and that she had been drinking.

In the message, she told him to “find yourself a lovely wife who will make you happy”.

Mr Thomas alerted the police and a helicopter began searching the area.

She was eventually spotted and the helicopter landed some 300 feet from her, but before the crew could reach her, she disappeared over the edge of the cliff.

She suffered fatal injuries in the fall – which took place just two days after the couple’s 10th anniversary.

The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.