A couple were found with gunshot wounds on the day bailiffs came to evict them, an inquest hears

An inquest heard that a couple was discovered with gunshot wounds on the day bailiffs arrived to evict them.

At 10.50 a.m. on June 8, publisher and journalist John Richardson, 74, and his wife Angela, 64, were discovered in woodland near their Goring Heath home.

They were discovered by police officers who had been summoned by a bailiff who was on the property of the couple, Bensgrove Farm, to evict them.

Opening an inquest into the couple’s death on Thursday, senior coroner for Oxfordshire Darren Salter said: ‘There is a reference to Mr Richardson struggling with financial difficulties.

‘On June 8, bailiffs attended their property in respect of eviction, it is said.

‘Upon their arrival, the enforcement officer and the landlord found a note on the door to say that they were in the wood at the top of the garden and to notify the police.

‘Police were called and located the bodies of a male and female outside the garden in the wood with gunshot injuries.

‘A handwritten note and a typed note were found inside the property in the nature of suicide notes.’

Mr. and Mrs. Richardson’s bodies had been post-mortem examined, and the cause of death in both cases was determined to be gunshot wounds. The coroner’s court heard that Mr Richardson had been shot in the chest.

Mr Richardson’s brother-in-law identified the couple to police officer DC Jim Armitage.

On January 18, 2019, a full inquest will be held.

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