Kelly Faiers, 61, died at the Somerset home of predator Richard Scatchard, 70, before he mysteriously disappeared and was later found dead in a caravan miles away
A woman was found dead from a cocktail of sleeping tablets and alcohol inside the home of her sex‑offender boyfriend, who had a chilling history of drugging women, sparking a murder probe, an inquest heard.
Kelly Faiers, 61, died at the Somerset home of predator Richard Scatchard, 70, before he mysteriously disappeared and was later found dead in a caravan miles away. Her death was initially treated as non-suspicious, but a murder probe was later launched by police when other evidence came to light about his previous convictions.
Somerset Coroner’s Court heard Scatchard had a long history of sexual offending dating back to the 1980s, which included attempted rape, sexual assault and administering drugs, such as chloroform, to obtain sex, according to Somerset Live.
He was jailed for life in 2000 and told to serve a minimum of five years and four months’ imprisonment before he could be considered for parole.
“His modus operandi was to meet a female, usually by a dating website or equivalent, and given we are talking about offences in the late 1980s or 1990s it was a lonely hearts advert,” Samantha Marsh, senior coroner for Somerset, described when referencing the four women Scatchard had drugged and sexually assaulted.
“He would administer unknown drugs to women, causing the woman to lose consciousness, and while she was unconscious, he would commit sexual acts upon her without her knowledge or consent. He would photograph or video his committal of these acts.”
Scatchard was released from prison in April 2013 and later moved to Minehead in 2020, the inquest heard. Ms Faiers, who was single and worked at Bristol Airport, had met Scatchard on a dating website, and they had been in a relationship for around six months before she died.
For years she had been a “high-functioning” alcoholic, her family said, while co-workers described a “fantasy” Scatchard had of having sex with her while unconscious through drugs and alcohol. The sex offender was also said to be “controlling”, often criticising Ms Faiers’ appearance.
“I told Kelly she needed to get out of that relationship. Kelly replied saying she would never take anything without knowing what was going to happen,” said Claire Blick, Ms Faiers’ work supervisor.
“On one occasion, Kelly mentioned during a conversation that Scatchard had tried to raise his hand at her, and she told him that would never happen again.
“About a week later, Kelly turned up to work with a black eye and told me she had fallen down and hit her head on the table. She wore sunglasses at work to cover the injury.”
Another colleague said he had “alarm bells” when Ms Faiers told him about text messages Scatchard sent her.
“Kelly told me Scatchard had asked her what flowers she would like to have at a funeral, and she was his sex slave and that she belonged to him,” Daniel Cepek said, adding, “When she told me these things, I said to her that’s just weird.
“The alarm bells continued to ring when another time Kelly told me that Scatchard had asked her to take some tablets so that he could have sexual relations with her while she was unconscious.
“After all these things that Kelly would disclose to the team, the team and I would tell Kelly she needed to get rid of him.”
Another colleague Jason Hemmings said: “Kelly expressed to me that Scatchard had a fantasy about her taking enough drugs and alcohol to the point of being unconscious and him having sex with her.
“I immediately told her it was not normal, and she needed to leave. She laughed it off, and it wasn’t spoken about again.”
A post-mortem examination found Ms Faiers, from Weston-super-Mare, had died from the combined effects of alcohol and sleeping tablets, pathologist Dr Amanda Jeffery concluded.
The mother-of-four was just under three times the drink-drive limit, and the concentration of the sleeping tablets would support the taking of “an excess number of tablets”.
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“It is not possible from the toxicology results to confirm the exact number of tablets that were taken,” Dr Jeffery said.
“The effects of alcohol and the tablets would provide an explanation for the death. It should be noted that it is not possible to determine from the pathology or the toxicology whether Kelly took the tablets willingly or knowingly. It cannot exclude spiking.”
Empty blister packets of sleeping tablets and Viagra were recovered from Scatchard’s home, the pathologist added.
“I was provided with a schedule of messages that were shared between Richard Scatchard and Kelly in the days prior to her death. These were highly sexualised on the part of Richard Scatchard and dismissive on the part of Kelly.
“It was clear sexual activity was planned or expected by Richard Scatchard on the weekend. He made sexually explicit comments about her including bondage, rough sex, anal penetration by objects, comments were also made to her that she should do as she was told.
“She does not appear to engage with these messages and attempts to brush them off. Her messages suggest she would not engage in any further activity with him.
“In the messages, he indicates he has explicit photographs of her. He describes wanting to throw her on the floor and have sex, including anal sex with her, and comments about her lying there naked while unconscious.
“She responds that she doesn’t particularly like that, and she hates loss of control. He says they had agreed to compromise on six tablets, and she tells him it is what he said.”
The inquest in Taunton continues.
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