An investment banker’s Russian finance analyst wife who was found hanged after doctors believe she may have drowned her son in the bath feared she would die from ‘likely curable’ breast cancer, an inquest heard.
The hearing was also told Yulia Gokcedag, 35, wanted a divorce from her difficult marriage and return to Russia.
Mrs Gokcedag was found dead inside an apartment in east London on August 13, with a post-mortem giving her cause of death as hanging. Her seven-year-old son, Timur, was found drowned in the bath with his clothes laid out on the side.
Dr Nathaniel Cary, who carried out Timur’s post-mortem, said the boy suffered minimal bruising to his scalp and chin which could have been ‘consistent with enforced immersion’.
Doctors gave the Russian-born finance analyst a 97 per cent chance of surviving breast cancer but she believed she would be part of the three per cent exception, the coroner heard.
She also told her mother she was afraid to die despite going on to take her own life, it was said.
Mrs Gokcedag was due to undergo surgery days before the tragedy on August 13, 2020 and was also receiving therapy to help cope with her fear, insomnia and anxiety.
Husband Mehmet Gokcedag, a financial risk manager of Wimbledon, told the inquest: ‘It is very unimaginable why and how she could do this.
‘The child that came out of her, why would she take his life?’
In a statement read to the court, Mrs Gokcedag’s friend said Mrs Gokcedag confided in her during lockdown about her cancer and about wanting a divorce.
Katharina Sellner, who lived next door to Mrs Gokcedag in the Isle of Dogs, east London, where the bodies were found, said she often heard Mr Gokcedag shouting from next door and that she called police on one occasion in fear of their safety.
Mr Gokcedag objected to Katharina’s statement but added: ‘We had certain marriage issues, I do accept.’
The British Turkish banker told the coroner Mrs Gokcedag and her mother Elena Galieva would also shout at him and that he felt excluded when they spoke in Russian.
He added: ‘It was a very difficult life. I have a stressful job, yes I did shout but I never abused my wife.’
Mr Gokcedag wept as he recalled fond memories of his wife buying a kite for their son which he hoped would attach her to life.
He said: ‘She bought a kite for Timur. She went out with Timur to enjoy life and fly the kite together.
‘We did that as a family, father and mother and son. I always thought she would attach herself to life if she did those things.
‘She never said she thought Timur would be better off dead. She loved him.’
He also told the inquest of his wife’s battle with mental health and her fear of death.
Adding: ‘She said that there was a constant vibration inside her. Something vibrating that she could not get out of her body. She had a fear of death.’
