A former pole dancer who was jailed after she deceived a postman into believing they had a genuine suicide pact and then left him to die alone has since taken her own life, an inquest was told.
Natasha Gordon, 49, was jailed in 2018 after she ‘changed her mind’ at the last minute and backed out of a pact to take her own life with Matthew Birkinshaw, 31.
Miss Gordon, from Peterborough, had only met Mr Birkinshaw on a suicide forum the day before they agreed to take their own lives together in a car at Rutland Water.
Mr Birkinshaw was found dead on 17 December 2015 and Miss Gordon was later found guilty by a jury of encouraging him to take his own life.
Miss Gordon had a history of anxiety, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts, Cambridgeshire Coroner’s Court was told.
She was diagnosed with ’emotionally unstable personality disorder’ in 2017 and showed signs of PTSD as a result of a traumatic childhood and ‘bullying issues’.
She had also been suffering from ‘abdominal issues’ and while in hospital in December 2022, and the coroner said it seemed ‘her physical problems worsened her mental health’.
Police were called to Miss Gordon’s home on January 7 by her landlord when her partner reported he had not heard from her for more than a week, the BBC reports.
The inquest in Huntingdon was told that it had been difficult to establish the exact date of her death but that she had ‘been dead for some time’ when she was found.
Miss Gordon was identified by her tattoo, Coroner Simon Milburn said.
The Coroner also said it was ‘clear she had a number of ongoing struggles’ but had not wanted ‘any mental health assistance’.
At her trial in 2018, Ali Naseem Bajwa QC, defending, said, as reported by LeicestershireLive: ‘She had a genuine intent to take her own life up until the car door opened and the realisation hit her about what she was about to do.
‘It’s not an uncommon phenomenon to change your mind in such circumstances.
‘Attempting to take your own life is no longer a crime.
‘Attempting to take one’s own life in company of another remains a crime.
‘Her intention amounted to encouragement, as the jury found, and was entirely secondary to the intention of taking her own life.’
