Suicide verdict on lorry driver believed to have strangled nine-year-old girl
A West Midlands lorry driver who committed suicide after he is believed to have strangled his fiancee's nine-year-old daughter had previously said he would rather kill himself than go to prison, an inquest heard.
Stacey Lawrence, of West Bromwich, was found last August in the cab of a white Spar lorry parked in a layby in Warmington, Northamptonshire.
She had been on a delivery run with her mother's partner Darren Walker, 40, whose body was found hanging from a tree in nearby woodland.
After the corpses were discovered, it emerged Stacey had been sexually assaulted before she died.
Mr Walker's inquest, at Kettering Magistrates' Court, heard today that he had previously told his fiancee Roxanne Lawrence - Stacey's mother - that he would kill himself rather than go to jail.
Northamptonshire coroner Anne Pember read a statement from the distraught mother, who was not at the inquest, which said Mr Walker, also of West Bromwich, previously told her and her daughter Emma that if he ever got angry with his estranged wife and did something wrong, he would commit suicide to avoid prison.
The lorry driver took Stacey on a delivery run with him on August 28 last year - like other trips they had made before together. But the alarm was raised when they did not return and once AF Blakemore, the company he worked for, activated a tracking device on the lorry, it was found in a layby on the A605 in Warmington, Northants.
Stacey's partially-clothed body was found in the lorry cab, the inquest heard. She had been strangled with a ligature.
Walker's body was found hanging from a tree in nearby woodland.
A post-mortem examination found he died of hanging and pathologist Guy Rutty said marks on his body were consistent with his attempts to hang himself from the tree.
In a statement read to the inquest today, Roxanne Lawrence described meeting Walker in August 2007 through her daughter's boyfriend when they were both already in relationships.
She said that when she met him and his then-wife, she was shocked at how they talked openly about their sex life.
She said he continued to visit her house, adding: "Family and friends had told me that he liked me and that was why he was visiting.
"To begin with, I just saw him as dirty and inappropriate. I was happy with my boyfriend at this time."
