Fuller deaths inquest hears of troubled relationship
An inquest into the deaths of a father and his three children at a disused Shropshire quarry today concluded.
The inquest today heard that that Ceri and his wife Ruth had argued over their troubled marriage and her relationship with a college lecturer.
It was heard that following an argument Ruth had asked Ceri to take their children for a drive on 12 July last year - the day they went missing from their Gloucestershire home.
Ruth Fuller said despite the arguments she could not believe her husband’s actions in killing their three children.
The bodies of Ceri Fuller, 35, his son Samuel, 12, and daughters Rebecca Rose, 8, and Charlotte Mae, 7, all of Milkwall, Coleford, Gloucestershire, were discovered in an old quarry at Poles Coppice, Pontesbury Hill, near Shrewsbury on July 16 2012.
The children died from stab injuries to their necks and chest, a knife was found nearby. Mr Fuller, was found at the foot of a 60ft cliff at the quarry with a fractured skull and other injuries consistent with a fall from height.
Their bodies were found four days after they were reported missing.
The coroner concluded that the three young children were unlawfully killed in acts of 'unimaginable horror'.
Finding that Ceri Fuller had taken his own life, coroner Andrew Barkley said overwhelming evidence had driven him to the inescapable conclusion that the 35-year-old acted alone in attacking his children with a hunting knife.
