Grand Prix motorcyclist Sean Emmett, 50, saw bride ‘flip out’ of Dubai hotel window, inquest hears

British motorcycling champion Sean Emmett saw his new bride ‘flip out’ of their Dubai hotel window while looking for her lost wedding ring, his brother told an inquest into her death.   

Jason Emmett, told Surrey coroner’s court how his brother Sean had called him hours after his wife Abbie Elson, 27, plummeted to her death from their fourth floor honeymoon suite at Jumeirah Creekside hotel, Dubai. 

Jason, who was best man at Sean’s wedding just days before Ms Elson’s death, told the inquest: ‘Sean said Abbie had fallen out of a window. 

‘He said she had lost her ring and had gone down to look for it and got all emotional about it.’

Sean Emmett, 50, saw his new bride ‘flip out’ of their Dubai hotel window while looking for her lost wedding ring

After she failed to find it, Sean Emmett went to look for the white gold ring but as he reached the door of their hotel room, he ‘saw her flip out’, his brother told the hearing.

Jason Emmett, a policeman for London’s Metropolitan force, said: ‘He sounded shaken up and said the whole thing was awful. He had got a lot of blood on him from giving her CPR.’

Security guard Joseph Semanda, 28, was on patrol at the Jumerai Creekside Hotel when he saw a woman silently plunge from the fourth floor on February 19 2013 at about 2.10am.

When he looked up, Mr Semanda saw a man looking down from the balcony and a woman had landed in a garden and was ‘gasping for air’.

Abbie Elson, 27, plummeted to her death from their fourth floor honeymoon suite at Jumeirah Creekside hotel, Dubai.

Abbie Elson, 27, plummeted to her death from their fourth floor honeymoon suite at Jumeirah Creekside hotel, Dubai.

The pair married in Cape Town in South Africa before flying to Dubai for their honeymoon

The pair married in Cape Town in South Africa before flying to Dubai for their honeymoon

In a statement read at Woking Coroner’s Court he said: ‘I saw a woman falling down from a window from one of the floors in the hotel.

‘I ran toward the place where she had fallen. I saw a man looking down from a window.’        

Mr Semanda said he was ‘not a big distance’ away when he saw the woman falling but he could not say how far away he was.

Mr Emmett, then aged 42, soon arrived at the scene and he seemed ‘confused’ and was shouting in English, according to the security guard.

Mr Semanda said: ‘He was crying and shouting and saying that it was his wife. He tried to perform rescue breathing on her.’

The security guard also said: ‘At this time the husband came to the scene and kept shouting ‘my wife, my wife why did you do this’. He kept calling her by her name. He tried to perform rescue breathing on her.

Ms Emmett died just days after she had arrived in the United Arab Emirates on honeymoon with her new husband Sean

Ms Emmett died just days after she had arrived in the United Arab Emirates on honeymoon with her new husband Sean

‘I was in shock because it is the first time I had seen someone fall. She was lying on her side horizontally.

‘At first I could not look at her. She was lying with her legs folded and her legs up.’

Mr Semanda said he heard her ‘gasping for air’ and then she stopped breathing.

Her nose and mouth were bleeding ‘but not heavily’.

An ambulance and police then came and Ms Elson was moved.

Mr Semanda could not say whether Ms Elson was pushed or took her own life.

Jason Emmett said he worried his brother would become suicidal while under investigation in Dubai on suspicion of her murder.

The 50-year-old former Grand Prix motorcyclist was held on bail for 10 months after her death in February 2013 but was eventually released without charge.

Mr Emmett's brother, Jason, told the hearing that Sean (pictured) and Ms Elson lived a 'very chaotic lifestyle' marked by excessive drinking

Mr Emmett’s brother, Jason, told the hearing that Sean (pictured) and Ms Elson lived a ‘very chaotic lifestyle’ marked by excessive drinking

When he flew back to the UK in December 2013, he was arrested by Surrey police but cleared after a three-year investigation.

The inquest aims to establish whether anyone else involved in Ms Elson’s death.

Jason Emmett told the hearing that his brother and Ms Elson lived a ‘very chaotic lifestyle’ marked by excessive drinking.

He said: ‘Sean led a sportsman’s lifestyle. I would describe him as a good-time person. He liked to party.

‘He was non-conformist and lived a disorganised lifestyle.’

He described his brother as a ‘heavy drinker’ and said the newly-wed were ‘like two peas in a pod’.

Jason Emmett told the inquest he would avoid his brother when he had been drinking because of his ‘annoying’ behaviour while under the influence of alcohol.

Ms Elson fell to her death from a fourth-storey window at the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel in Dubai, pictured

Ms Elson fell to her death from a fourth-storey window at the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel in Dubai, pictured

Despite living in the flat below his brother and Ms Elson, he denied seeing any signs of Mr Emmett being violent towards her, although he admitted police had to be called during one of their rows in November 2011.

‘I was not really aware of problems in their relationship but I was aware of a bit of an issue about three times,’ he told the hearing. ‘Normally it involved drinking and one of them getting locked out.’ 

Jason Emmett said he became so concerned about their drinking that he told Ms Elson: ‘If you drink like that, you are not going to live until you’re 40.’

Paul Chitty, a friend of the motorcyclist who lived opposite Emmett, told the hearing he could sometimes hear their screaming matches.

The inquest was told Ms Elson had suffered bouts of depression and self-harming and had a long history of mental health issues and battles with the eating disorder bulimia. She had attempted suicide twice before meeting Emmett.

The 50-year-old former Grand Prix motorcyclist was held on bail for 10 months after her death in February 2013 but was eventually released without charge

 The 50-year-old former Grand Prix motorcyclist was held on bail for 10 months after her death in February 2013 but was eventually released without charge

The superbike racer, pictured in action in 1997, denies ever assaulting his wife

The superbike racer, pictured in action in 1997, denies ever assaulting his wife

She had inflicted cuts on her arms and legs sporadically from the age of 10 and sought medical help in 2011, shortly after meeting Emmett, because the stress of dealing with an abusive partner was causing her to self-harm again and even caused her to step out in front of a moving car, doctors said.

Psychiatrist Raghad Hussain said in a written statement: ‘Abbie said she was living with an abusive partner and this triggered a few things. She said she was getting the urge to self-harm and described her relationship as ‘lovely most of the time but occasionally her partner would become abusive’.

Within three months of that report, she was drinking 200 units a week, more than 14 times the amount recommended by health officials.

The inquest was told in the last few years of her life, Ms Elson was admitted to hospital on several occasions with bruises to her arms, neck and chest and was known to the domestic violence team in the area where she lived.

In 2011 Ms Elson told doctors Emmett assaulted her 'at least once a month' and had pushed her against a wall and table

In 2011 Ms Elson told doctors Emmett assaulted her ‘at least once a month’ and had pushed her against a wall and table

In 2011, she told doctors Emmett assaulted her ‘at least once a month’ and had pushed her against a wall and table.

When her ear was badly ripped in July 2011 and had to be stitched back on, she told doctors she intended to leave him and that he prevented her from seeing friends and family.

And she even sought help from doctors the day before flying to Cape Town in South Africa to get married to Emmett.

On Monday, Ms Elson’s parents Christopher and Carolyn Elson and her close friends gave evidence of Emmett subjecting her to a cycle of abuse. They said she sought their help on a number of occasions after he attacked her but she kept returning to him.

The inquest heard the wedding party included Emmett’s racing circle as well as his brother but Ms Elson’s friends and family were excluded and only discovered they were married after she posted a message on Facebook in February 2013.

The couple flew to Dubai for a two-night stopover on their way back from South Africa but Ms Elson died on their first night in the UAE. 

Post-mortem tests found she had suffered chest and head injuries after falling from a high place and she also had enough alcohol in her body to have been sufficient for a person to lack balance and lose consciousness, the court heard.

Mr Emmett was investigated by police in Dubai and the UK but neither inquiry led to charges relating to the death.

The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday at 10am.

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