A businessman’s heartbroken wife found him dying after he was crushed by his own Range Rover near a helipad at their home, an inquest heard.
Sarah-Jane Thirsk was left ‘hysterical’ after she discovered husband Henry Thirsk, 74, close to his 4×4 on the grounds of their property in Everingham, East Yorks.
Despite her attempts to resuscitate her husband — who owned a hotel and was part of the shooting community — he was pronounced dead at the scene in April 2022.
She told Hull Coroner’s Court today Mon she noticed the lights of his car from the widow of her bathroom at 9:30pm on April 20, 2022, while waiting for him to come home.
But when she went outside to see what had happened, she spotted some ‘sacks’ lying close to their garage, before realizing to her horror it was his body.
Speaking about the moment when she discovered Mr. Thirsk, devastated Sarah-Jane told the court: “I saw the driver’s door open and the back door.
“I started shouting for him. Then I turned around and saw what I thought was some sacks lying by the garage but it was him.”
“I knelt down and when I realized it was him, I jumped up. I went hysterical… then I started CPR. He was on his side, so I turned him over. It was quite hard to hear the breathing all the time.”
The inquest into Mr. Thirsk’s death heard Monday he and Sarah-Jane had been together for about 18 years and had married during the pandemic.
And although he had previously suffered from a couple of strokes, he was said to be in good physical health.
On the day of his death, Sarah-Jane had taken a friend, John Waters, for a doctor’s appointment in Manchester, the court heard.
They had gone in car enthusiast Mr. Thirsk’s Rolls Royce and had returned back to the farm around 4pm where they met him and had a glass of wine.
But Sarah-Jane had then left again to pick up a Chinese takeaway and had spotted her husband driving his Range Rover away from the home as she headed back.
She said it was not ‘out of character’ for the businessman — who owned the Feathers Hotel in Pocklington, East Yorks — to go out in the evening and inspect his property.
But she was then surprised when she saw some headlights through an upstairs window of their home in the evening, near to a helipad where they landed their chopper.
She then called her brother, James Clegg, as she headed out to inspect the vehicle
Sarah-Jane told the court: “I got dressed and told the dogs we were going outside.
“I decided to ring my brother James to ask him to stay on the phone with me while I went outside because it was dark.
“The way I walked to the car, you don’t walk past the lights where he was… It was a few hundred yards. I rang my brother in case it wasn’t [Henry’s car].”
The inquest heard how James had phoned for an ambulance when he heard what had happened as Sarah cried out down the phone to him.
His statement, read by coroner Paul Marks, revealed how she had told him “Henry’s not in the car,” before she screamed “Henry, Henry, Henry Henry” when she saw his badly bruised body.
He added: “She was saying Henry, Henry, wake up.”
George Cooper, a farmer from the next-door property, who had known Mr. Thirsk for over 30 years also received a call from Sarah-Jane following the discovery.
He told the court she had told him over the phone: “You’ve got to come quickly, You’ve got to come quickly, I need you now.”
When he arrived, he began doing CPR on Mr. Thirsk body for “17 minutes” before a road ambulance arrived and paramedics took over.
Sarah-Jane was questioned by Mr. Marks as to why she both moved Mr. Thirsk car and took pictures of his injuries before the paramedics arrived.
She told him: “I kept thinking he was alive and when we went the hospital for his strokes, and we went there for something else, maybe eye surgery, he said ‘Let me see the pictures, let me see what I look like with all my leads on’.”
“And I think I did it to show him when he asked me when I showed him.”
She added about the car: “George said the air ambulance is coming and in that moment, that’s where we landed our helicopter and I just thought, they can’t land as the car is in the way. I moved the car off the field so they could land.”
Pathologist Dr. Christopher Johnson said after he had inspected the body, he believed Mr. Thirsk’s injuries would have been ‘consistent’ with being crushed by a car.
He said: “The autopsy examination of Henry Stamford Thirsk confirmed that he died as a result of chest injuries from being crushed under the tyres of a vehicle.”
“The heart was extensively disrupted, and this would have been unable to effectively pump blood around the body.”
“He died as a result of chest injuries and the injuries noted in the autopsy were all entirely typical of injuries that arise from when an individual is run over and crushed by the wheels of a vehicle.”
