Mother And Daughter Died In Hotel Suicide Pact After Conwoman Duped Them Into Thinking They Faced 20 Years In Jail As Part Of A Bizarre Scam That Turned Their Family Against Them

Nicola McDonough, 23, (centre) and her mother Margaret McDonough, 52, (top right) were found with fatal slash wounds at a Premier Inn hotel in Greenock, Renfrewshire, after being conned by fraudster Linsey Cotton (left). Paisley Sheriff Court heard that Cotton concocted a bizarre plot to convince the pair that they had broken a strict confidentiality agreement surrounding the secret medical treatment of a person whose identity she had made up. First Cotton lured Mrs McDonough's RAF corporal son, Michael, into an online relationship through a dating website and then spun a web of lies to con him and his family out of £10,000. 

As part of the elaborate scheme Cotton told Mr McDonough that a firm had instituted a confidentiality order which banned him from discussing her supposed medical treatment with anyone. But Mr McDonough confided in his mother, who in turn told his sister. When Cotton confronted the two women she told them that they were risking a lengthy jail term for breaching the terms of the order. The two women were left 'petrified and tearful at the thought of being jailed'. Three days later Mrs McDonough and her daughter took their own lives together.

MailOnline