E-mails sparked double killing

Dr Anupama Damera's body was found in the family home

A surgeon killed his wife and leapt from a bridge with his two-year-old son after he read her e-mails and became convinced she was having an affair.

Dr Jaya Prakash Chiti, 41, grabbed his son Pranau and jumped off the 160ft bridge over the River Orwell near Ipswich, Suffolk. Both died.

Earlier Dr Anupama Damera, 36, had been stabbed at the family home in Ipswich.

On Wednesday a coroner recorded two verdicts of unlawful killing and a verdict of suicide on Mr Chiti.

The inquest at Ipswich Crown Court was told the tragedy unfolded in February 2004 after Mr Chiti had read e-mails from one of his wife's colleagues. He believed they proved she was having an affair.

The coroner heard Mr Chiti's fingerprints were found on printed e-mails exchanged between Mrs Chiti and Dr William Dunn.

The bodies of father and son were found near the Orwell Bridge

The pair had worked together at the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham before the family moved to Suffolk in 2003.

Suffolk coroner Peter Dean said: "Those e-mails could have been read by Jaya in a way which could have led him to believe there was more than a friendship between Anupama and Dr Dunn."

The couple's 11-year-old son Ani was found in the house uninjured.

Dr Dunn, who is married to an Indian woman and has a 13-year-old daughter, told the hearing Mrs Chiti had confided she was unhappy about her arranged marriage.

'Not happily married'

The doctor, a consultant radiologist at the QMC where he was among a team of senior medics who trained Mrs Chiti, said he had had a long, friendly relationship.

He said: "I knew her for a long time and she told me a lot of things over the years.

"We had a lot of conversations on the phone and email.

"She confided in me a lot of details about her marriage and how she felt about it.

"She expressed to me although Jaya was a good man and she was grateful to him, she was not happily married."

Dr Dunn was not asked directly if he had had an affair with Mrs Chiti and after giving evidence he left through a side door without commenting to reporters.

New job

Mr Chiti was due to start a new job as a senior houseman in the accident and emergency department at Ipswich Hospital a few days after his death.

He had been working in the department as a locum for several weeks.

Mrs Chiti was a consultant radiologist who specialised in breast screening.

The family had moved from Nottingham last summer after leaving their native India about five years ago.