Todd’s turmoil laid bare

Police chief Michael Todd died from exposure after taking a cocktail of drink and drugs as his personal life unravelled, an inquest heard yesterday.

Mr Todd’s last text message had pleaded for forgiveness from an unnamed person, saying, “I’m sorry for what I have done, forgive me in another life.”

His body was later found on a lonely mountainside in appalling weather. He had drunk gin and taken sleeping tablets.

Recording a narrative verdict, North-West Wales coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said there was not enough evidence for suicide or an accident through misadventure.

He said: “Mr Todd died of exposure when his state of mind was affected by alcohol, a drug and confusion due to his personal situation.”

The last emotional text message from Mr Todd had prompted the person who received it, known only as “C”, to call police.

But the message was the last contact he made, following his spiral into despair after his wife Carolyn’s discovery of his affair with another woman.

Mr Todd’s body was found, close to an empty gin bottle on March 11, at Bwlch Glas on Mount Snowdon, following a massive police search.

Days before he had been confronted by his wife, who had found out about his infidelity.

Angie Robinson, the married chief executive of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, was linked to the police chief following his death. But she was only one among a string of other women involved with Mr Todd. It emerged another person, “G”, had spent the night at his flat days before his death. As his life unravelled, the 50-year-old searched the internet for ways to kill himself, sending increasingly desperate text messages to friends and lovers.

The texts culminated in him admitting he was intending to kill himself and apologising to his wife, telling her he still loved her.

After the hearing, Mrs Todd said: “I have forgiven him and Michael’s family have forgiven him. The tragedy is that Michael never felt able to seek the help he badly needed.”