Slump drives farmer to suicide
25 November 1999
Slump drives farmer to suicide
THE wife of a Welsh sheep farmer has been left with six children to raise on her own after her husband committed suicide out of despair.
An inquest was told Martyn Jones, 44, hanged himself in his lambing shed.
The coroner at Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, recorded a verdict of
suicide.
Coroner John Hollis said: “Mr Jones simply did not want to carry on being a farmer, and who can blame him with the current crisis across the British Isles.”
Mr Jones was the third generation of his family to farm the 80.94ha (200
acre) hillside holding at Beulah in Powys. He was found by his wife, Sue, but he was already dead.
She has vowed to continue farming for the sake her children. The farm has 30 cattle and 500 sheep.
- Bottling up stress lifts suicide rates, FWi, 01 October, 1999
- One farmer a week commits suicide, FWi, 13 September, 1999
- “Alarmist” politicians to blame for farmers suicide, says coroner, FWi, 12 December, 1997
- The Times 25/11/99 page 18
- The Daily Telegraph 25/11/99 page 9
- The Express 25/11/99 page 1,5
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