An inquest heard that the 90-year-old farmer who was discovered dead in a slurry hole had revised his will only that day.
On the edge of a lagoon in January 2020, a mobility scooter belonging to John Charles Barnett was discovered upside down. A diver at Hully Farm, close to Whitchurch, Shropshire, discovered his remains.
According to testimony at an inquest in Ruthin, Denbighshire, North Wales, the retiree left his farm and some land to Nigel Byrne, a worker at the dairy farm, in a will he wrote in 2014.
The will was canceled and a new one was drafted by Mr. Barnett the day he passed away, giving £20,000 to Mr. Byrne and splitting the remaining assets amongst his son and daughter.
The attorney for Mr. Barnett’s family had requested at a prior pre-inquest hearing that coroner John Gittins take into account illegal killing in his decision-making.
At the most recent hearing, Mr. Gittins said that this would indicate a “homicide occurrence” and that someone must be “culpable” in that situation.
Jennifer Parry-Jones, Mr. Barnett’s daughter, informed the coroner that she left her father in his chair on the evening of his death at 6:22 p.m. and went home. She missed Mr. Byrne’s call an hour later.
He told me to hurry back here quickly,” Mrs. Parry-Jones recalled hearing when she answered the phone. Your father has become insane and is moving toward the lagoon.
According to Mrs. Parry-Jones, Mr. Byrne injured her father. Why would Nigel hurt your father, Mr. Gittins questioned her. Mrs. Parry-Jones said, “My father amended his will,” to which Mrs. Parry-Jones said.
At the inquest, Mrs. Parry-Jones testified that she had closed a door at her father’s house so her father “couldn’t get out.” Nigel Byrne was the only one present. To let dad out, I think he had to unlock the door.
The inquiry learned that Mr. Barnett received his share of a farmhouse and over 60 acres of farmland via a will that was written in 2012. Robert Barnett, the son of widower Mr. Barnett, informed the coroner that the family wanted to know more.
Do you think there has been any wrongdoing, Mr. Gittins questioned him? – to which Mr. Barnett said, “I honestly don’t know.”
Do you think Nigel was actively engaged in throwing your father in the silage pit, Mr. Gittins questioned?
I couldn’t say that, the agricultural worker retorted. It’s awful to have to believe that.”
In a statement, general practitioner Dr. Kieran Redman said that Mr. Barnett had disclosed his prior suicide attempt. The farmer’s son, however, claimed that his father’s health had improved ‘enormously’ in 2019.
Robert Barnett, Mr. Barnett’s son and a farm worker, was questioned by the coroner about whether he thought Mr. Byrne had had a direct part in placing his father in the slurry pit.
It’s a terrible thing to have to believe, Mr. Barnett said to the audience. In the past, Nigel had threatened to harm Dad if he altered his will and had verbally insulted him. Underneath his friendly exterior, he has an extremely scary side. Given that, I believe it to be a possibility.
He continued by saying that his father had struggled for a while after losing his wife in 2017.
In a statement, general practitioner Dr. Kieran Redman noted that Mr. Barnett had disclosed his prior suicide attempt. The farmer’s son, however, claimed that his father’s health had improved ‘enormously’ in 2019.
As a family, this definitely haunts us, according to Mr. Barnett. We want the questions to be addressed, but right now it seems highly unlikely that will happen.
According to Mr. Barnett, he was at home when a neighbor informed him that his father was just a few minutes away in the lagoon. He said that a hefty mobility scooter belonging to his father was lying on its side not far from the hole. A police diver discovered the pensioner’s corpse some hours later.
According to Mr. Barnett, his late father informed him that he had been “violently mistreated.”
The investigation goes on.
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