The bride of superbike racer Sean Emmett told her parents and university friends that he regularly beat her, before her shocking death in 2013 when she fell from a hotel balcony in Dubai, an inquest in Surrey, United Kingdom has heard.
Abigail Elson, 27, fell to her death from the balcony during their honeymoon stopover in Dubai on February 19, 2013.
The prosecution presented evidence and testimonies to Woking Coroner’s Court about messages that Abigail sent to her parents, Christopher and Carolyn, as well as her friends months before the incident.
In an e-mail, Abigail, who was in the UK at that time, narrated that she was “in a situation” and that Sean would hit her “at least once a week”. She also detailed that he had thrown her out of their flat, stole her £300 (AED1,400). She admitted in that e-mail that she had reached “rock bottom”, reported Surrey Live.
Her parents had met her several times to know what was going on. In one instance, her parents said in a written statement submitted to court: “It was an email asking for our help. We had never heard of Sean and asked ourselves if she was spinning us a plan to get money. She came and met us. She was staying with people, but did not want to say where. Her lips were bruised.”
“She used the money we gave her – about £150 – to go to her friend’s. We had no idea that she would go back to Sean. I do not think she ever discussed being with him as she knew we would not approve,” her parents statement read.
The court also heard that Abigail met the superbiker at a time when she dropped out of her law school. Her friends, however, did not approved of Sean, then 45 years old, due to their age gap as well as the fact that he was unemployed.
On several occasions, Abigail told them that Sean was a “control freak” and admitted that she was being physically abused. Her friends thought that she would hear their advice of leaving Sean.
Months later and having little contact with her friends or family, Abigail then messaged them that she and Sean had tied the knot in South Africa. None of them was informed prior.
The next thing they heard in the news, Abigail fell to her death from the balcony of their honeymoon hotel in Dubai, before their supposed trip back to the UK.
Her family and friends believed Abigail funded their wedding through the £35,000 she received from Cardiff hospital after a botched surgery. According to her close friends, it was a sum of money that she did not want Sean to have access to.
However, her parents found out that transactions had been made from Abigail’s bank account following her death.
