New wife of tragic Paul speaks out
Paul and Laura Coutts on their wedding day, just four months before he died
A DISTRAUGHT wife whose new husband was killed by a lorry will lay him to rest tomorrow while still trying to solve the mystery of his death.
Paul Coutts, 35, died after being hit by a truck on the City Bypass at the end of last month, just four months after he married long-term partner, Laura, 28.
Laura, who had suffered an earlier tragedy when she lost the baby they had longed for just a week before their wedding, claimed her partner should have been in hospital and not wandering on the bypass that night.
She said: “Normally Paul was a very cheery, happy person, but he had become really dazed and confused in the last week.
“I took him up to the hospital where he was taken in for the night. I agreed I would go home and come back to see him in the morning.
“But later the police came to my door saying I had to get up to the hospital because he had been in a serious accident.
“I was telling them he was in hospital and they had got the wrong person but they mentioned the bypass and his hospital ID and that’s when I knew. By the time I got there he had gone.
“I just feel that if somebody had said he was leaving I could have gone and found him. They had released him when I was told he wasn’t going to be released. I was phoning all evening making sure he wasn’t going to be let out. The hospital will carry out an internal investigation.”
Paul was struck by a lorry near the Sheriffhall roundabout at around 11.40pm on Friday, June 29. He died of his injuries after being taken back to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary a short time after the collision.
Laura, an administrator, met the picture framer almost nine years ago when she was studying nursing in Aberdeen.
She told how it was “love at first sight” and the pair moved in together after just two days.
The pair later moved to Haddington, East Lothian, to be close to Laura’s family.
Laura told how they were desperate to become parents but it was not meant to be. She said: “I had fallen pregnant but discovered I had lost the baby a week before the wedding.
“I was supposed to be about 16 weeks but when I went for a scan we saw the baby had stopped growing at five weeks.It was heart wrenching.”
Paul’s funeral service is to be held tomorrow at Mortonhall Crematorium.
Dr David Farquharson, medical director at NHS Lothian, said: “A report has been sent to the procurator fiscal and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
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Weather for Edinburgh
Thursday 20 June 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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