Angela Hoyt

A RED Cross worker was unlawfully killed by her ex-boyfriend, who went on to kill himself three days later, an inquest heard.

Martin Collett

Angela Hoyt and Martin Collett had split up, but they both remained living in her house in Glebeland, Hatfield.

Ms Hoyt had returned from working in Pakistan and had become fond of a new man while away.

Dr Collett, who had a Phd and was a trained pilot, had sent abusive text messages and had hacked into her email and Facebook account, changing passwords and posting political statements which may have affected her work for the Red Cross.

She visited officers at Hatfield Police Station and they agreed to issue Dr Collett with a warning about his behaviour, but 34-year-old Ms Hoyt had asked for the officers not to deliver it while she sorted details about the house.

Pc Sarah Henderson, who spoke to Ms Hoyt, told the inquest: “She said they were sleeping in separate bedrooms, and he had never been violent towards her.

“She felt she was wasting our time.”

In her police statement Ms Hoyt said: “I haven’t slept, he is telling lies about me. “I want him to leave all of this and stop trying to run my life.”

Dr Collett, 35, had been planning to move out and even viewed a flat in Bedford. Ms Hoyt’s identical twin sister Ami Watanabe called police from her home in Canada to report she was unable to contact her sister.

Police broke into the Glebeland cottage, shortly before midnight on Tuesday, May 24 and found Ms Hoyt face down in the bath.

She had died of compression of the neck.

Scenes of crime officer John Coe said: “She was still clothed and the theory is that she was running a bath at the time and was attacked while she was probably sitting on the bath edge.”

Dr Collett had left food and water for the couple’s shared cat Sam, before going on the run.

Police carried out a manhunt and through press coverage received numerous sightings of Dr Collett.

He was spotted in the grounds of Hatfield House on Friday, May 27, but later stepped out in front of a 100mph train near Hatfield station.

The inquest ruled that Ms Hoyt had been unlawfully killed and that Dr Collett had killed himself.

*See this week’s Welwyn Hatfield Times for the Police watchdog’s ruling on how the case was handled by Herts Police and Ms Hoyt’s sister’s tribute to her twin.