A heartbroken dad shot himself and his beloved dog at his son’s grave so the three would be ‘united’ again, an inquest heard.
Allen Hinchliffe, 52, died after shooting himself twice in the abdomen at the grave of his 20-year-old son Ben, who had died six months earlier in a road accident.
Bradford Coroner’s Court heard Mr Hinchliffe shot Jake, the dog he and Ben had joint owned, before turning the gun on himself.
The sports shotgun bore a plaque with the words: ‘In loving memory of Ben’, the inquest was told.
Mr Hinchliffe, of Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, was taken to the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, despite pleading with police and paramedics not to help him, the court heard.
Despite an initial recovery, Mr Hinchliffe died three weeks later after his wounds became infected, the Huddersfield Examiner reports.
The court heard the father-of-four had been ‘devastated’ by the loss of his son who died when his Suzuki 4x4 struck a wall at a junction, on October 29, last year.
Concluding that Mr Hinchliffe had intentionally taken his life, Coroner Oliver Longstaff, said: “It seems Mr Hinchliffe found it extremely difficult to keep on with life and the turn it had taken.
“I am entirely satisfied he went to Ben’s grave in the hope of uniting the three of them.”
The court heard Mr Hinchliffe had enjoyed an ‘extremely close’ relationship with Ben and had a ‘deep affection’ for dog Jake with whom the pair would regularly go hunting.
Mr Longstaff added that Mr Hinchliffe, a former roofer, had shot his dog as a result of ‘acute distress rather than cruelty’.
The inquest heard that earlier in his life Mr Hinchliffe had suffered bouts of depression and had had his shotgun confiscated, although his licence was renewed after he recovered.
Mr Longstaff said: “I am in no doubt that Mr Hinchliffe absolutely intended what was going to happen to him. The reasons why he felt that way are obvious and the steps he took... are obvious.”
Ben, of Meltham, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, had not been wearing his seatbelt when his vehicle left the road and struck a wall.
The trainee butcher probably fell asleep at the wheel immediately before the accident, an earlier inquest concluded.
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