A MUM collapsed in despair after dashing home to find her children gone and a note from her ex saying he was going to kill them, a court heard.

The West Swindon woman had been enjoying a night out in town when she received a series of chilling texts from her former partner, threatening to gas their two children.

Giving evidence at Bristol Crown Court yesterday against the man, who she had an eight-year relationship with, she said: "I love my kids. I was devastated. They are my life.

"I ran upstairs. I thought the kids might have been upstairs in bed and they were gone. I collapsed on the stairs crying. I was hysterical. I just felt sick to my stomach."

Prosecuting, James Patrick, said the dad attempted to gas his two young children to death after their mother refused to give him one last chance' to make their relationship work. The 36-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the woman if he could not have their young son and daughter then she could not either.

The man, who was due to move out of the family home a week before the incident, on September 4 last year, drove his children to Lydiard Park where he locked them in his Renault Megane and attached a pipe from the exhaust into the car.

The distraught youngsters were saved when a police officer spotted the vehicle by chance and, after several attempts to smash the car window, managed to persuade their dad to unlock the doors.

The children were taken to hospital and received no long-term injuries. The couple had decided to split last summer.

Despite leading separate lives, he continued to live at home with his partner and was babysitting the night she went out, the court heard.

Mr Patrick said the defendant, who had been drinking during the day, had asked her to give him one last try before she went out, but she refused and told him it was over.

Later in the evening, Mr Patrick said, the ominous texts started and as the night came to an end the woman checked her phone and found the messages saying he was taking the children to heaven.

Mr Patrick said: "The Crown's case is that when he drove to Lydiard Park he was indeed trying to kill himself and his two children.

"This was not a cry for help. This was not a prank. This was a deliberate and planned attempt by him to kill himself and his two children."

The defendant denies two charges of attempted murder and four counts of making a threat to kill.

He claims his car was fitted with a catalytic converter and he knew that the fumes could not kill anyone.

Text timeline

10.20pm:

"We're on our way now. Shame you didn't say goodbye."

2.31am:

"Sorry it's ended this way but if I can't have you and the kids then you can't have us. We come together. Sorry xx."

2.43am:

"Too busy to care are you? Don't worry. Me and the kids will be in heaven together. When you get in look for the hosepipe to the Hoover. It's on my exhaust. Sorry xxx."

3.31am:

"And you're that bothered you're still up town. Hope he is worth it. Pubs shut now."

Note left in the kitchen

"Sorry, if I can't have the kids then you ain't xxx. Have a good life xx."

  • The trial continues.