Youngsters killed by father at Shropshire beauty spot after wife's crush

Ceri Fuller, described by his wife's sister as 'possessive', talked about splitting with his wife Ruth before leaving their home with their children in July last year.

Mr Fuller, 35, Samuel, 12, Rebecca, eight, and seven-year-old Charlotte were found dead four days later in a disused quarry near Shrewsbury.

Postmortem examinations found all three children had suffered severe neck wounds thought to have been inflicted with a large hunting knife.

Mr Fuller, a production line supervisor at a paper mill, was found dead at the foot of a 60ft cliff at Poles Coppice on Pontesbury Hill, with a fractured skull and other injuries.

Wem Coroners Court was told how Ruth had exchanged 'flirty' text messages with her tutor before asking him out for a drink which she quickly rescinded.

Mark Lindley-Highfield, Ruth's lecturer on her humanities course at Cheltenham College, said she had text him on July 11 followed by a number of other messages over the next day.

"The nature referred to a 'bonkers e-mail' she had sent me and referred to her having a mid-life crisis which I thought was strange," he said.

It prompted the Open University tutor for Gloucester University to remind her of the boundaries between a student and lecturer. Andrew Barkley, the deputy coroner for Mid and North-West Shropshire, then heard a further text was sent by Ruth asking Mr Lindley-Highfield if he would like to meet up for a drink, which she quickly said was meant to be sent to her husband.

Ruth's sister, Joanna Ballard, received a call on the day of the disappearance from Anne Tocknell, the pair's mother, to say Ruth was unwell and acting 'strange' and asking her to attend the family home in Milkwall, Gloucestershire.

Anne then rang back and described how Ruth had 'tried to kill herself' and was in a 'zoned-out state'.

Mrs Ballard said an out-of-hours GP visited to assess her sister before being admitted to the A&E department of the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital by 10.30pm on July 12.

Joanna said: "I accessed Ruth's iPhone and saw several texts between Ruth and Ceri as late as the Monday or Tuesday of that week before which were of a loving nature. There were also three to five text messages between her tutor and in my view the texts were of a flirty nature."

She added: "She had previously told me that she had a 'schoolgirl crush' on Mark but would never act on it."

Ruth awoke in her hospital bed to declare to her sister that her and Ceri had not been involved in a row but were splitting up, the inquest heard.

Police were alerted by the family days before the children's deaths because of concerns for the welfare of the children.