WH E N K a t h r y n Cook died six months after a savage beating at the hands of her former boyfriend, her family found evidence that she may have known what was coming.

The 44-year-old mother had penned the lines to the funeral poem, Miss Me But Let Me Go, and left it for her parents.

She slipped into a coma after Paul Northey attacked her while she was drunk during one of their secret meetings on June 25, 2008.

Six months later, and four days after Northey was jailed for eight years for wounding with intent, she died from bronchial pneumonia, as a result of a brain haemorrhage.

Kathryn’s mother, Kathleen, a grandmother-offour, said: “It was when I was going through her papers that I found it. It was just lying there in an envelope with ‘Mam’ written on.

“When I read it I said to Kathryn’s dad, Philip: ‘Our Kathryn knew this was going to happen’. She is trying to tell us. It could not be more plain. It is very sad. I broke down in tears when I first read it.”

The Cooks had initially approved of the relationship with Northey, who worked as a block paver and met Kathryn at a nearby pub.

He moved in with her and appeared to get on well with them, but they urged her to end the relationship when they realised he had been beating her up.

She would be left with black eyes, bruises all over her body, fat lips and bald patches where he had pulled her hair out.

Northey was given a caution and probation for common assault in the two years before the fatal attack on Kathryn, but still she continued to see him. His attacks became more violent and more frequent as his use of amphetamine increased, which made him edgy and intolerant.

On June 25, 2008, Northey’s 39th birthday, he would attack her for the last time. Ms Cook was found unconscious on her bed by her daughter, Rebecca, who was ten at the time, when she got home from school.

Because Northey knew the family’s routine, he knew it would be the girl who would find her mother, who had already slipped into the coma from which she would never recover.

Mrs Cook said: “It was horrendous.

We kept hoping and praying that she would come around, but they said that the head injuries were horrific. The doctor took us into a room and said there was no hope for Kathryn.

“He said: ‘I do not know what he has done, but it looks like she had been in a car crash with a car going 100-130mph because of the damage’. We were hoping for a miracle, but they said: ‘Do not build your hopes up’.”

Northey initially told detectives he had not attacked Ms Cook, but later told a probation officer there had been a fight. He pleaded guilty to wounding at Durham Crown Court.

When Ms Cook died he tried to appeal his conviction, arguing he had not understood what he was admitting to, but the High Court rejected his plea.

He denied murder and maintained he did not attack Ms Cook in a way that could have killed her.

He suggested that, because she was a chronic alcoholic, her injuries could have been sustained as the result of a fall. But yesterday, a jury returned a majority verdict, ten to two, that he was responsible for delivering the fatal blows.

Before passing sentence, Adrian Waterman, QC, read a statement from Ms Cook’s daughter, now 14, who has had counselling as a result of what Northey has done.

She said: “It is horrible to think about how I found my Mam like that. I will never be able to forget it. It is awful to think I am not able to talk to my Mam. I miss her very much and will always love her."