Kelly Faiers unlawfully killed by Richard Scatchard in Minehead – coroner

The partner of a convicted sex offender with a history of drugging and sexually assaulting women was unlawfully killed, a coroner has found.

Kelly Faiers, 61, from Weston-super-Mare, died on 15 October 2023 at the home of Richard Scatchard, 70, in Minehead, Somerset.

An inquest held over three days at Somerset Coroner’s Court heard Faiers had spoken to colleagues about Scatchard’s controlling behaviour.

Samantha Marsh, senior coroner for Somerset, said Faiers’ relationship with Scatchard had, on balance, been “controlling and coercive”, and found she had been coerced into taking an “excess quantity” of sleeping tablets on the night she died.

Marsh told the inquest Faiers had died from a cardiac arrest, caused by a combination of sleeping tablets and alcohol, after being found unresponsive in the early hours of the morning.

Before delivering her conclusion, Marsh said coercing an intoxicated person to take tablets was a “dangerous, unlawful act”.

“I do not believe he [Scatchard] intended her death to be the result,” she added. “He wanted to stupefy her so that he could have his way with her.”

An Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation had previously found that Avon and Somerset Police had provided an “unacceptable” level of service to Faiers’ family.

On Tuesday, the inquest was told officers called to the scene were advised by a superior not to arrest Scatchard, despite their knowledge of his previous convictions and concerns about his demeanour.

A murder investigation was launched the day after Faiers’ death, but Scatchard had disappeared when officers returned to his home.

He then went missing and was found dead at a caravan park nearby months later.