THE woman who fell 74ft to her death from Carfax Tower was thousands of pounds in debt, her grieving husband revealed last night.

Patricia Stoute, 61, of Dunnock Way, in Blackbird Leys, died after falling from the tower, narrowly missing shocked shoppers on Monday.

Yesterday her husband Kenneth Churchill-Stoute paid tribute to the woman he married a year ago and planned to spend the rest of his life with, but also said he feared her debts of £24,000 may have been the cause of the tragedy.

The 69-year-old, also known as Jason, said his wife had bank loans and credit and store card debts and the couple were struggling to pay them off.

Mr Churchill-Stoute said: “She really was a marvellous woman. I was proud to call her my wife.

“She was getting deeper in debt and I believe she really couldn’t cope anymore.

“It’s very sad. I wish she had told me. We could have sorted something out."

Mr Churchill-Stoute believes his wife built up much of the debt buying items for the couple’s marital home.

He said: “I told her not to go spending like that. There was nothing I needed but I think she was trying to please me. “She said: ‘I’ve let you down’ but I said don’t worry about it.”

His wife was also heavily overdrawn from before their marriage, he added. “I’m still in shock, we all get in debt sometimes. All this time she must have had this thing building up.

“We were paying it back but what was coming in was less than what was going out.

“But she was paying through the nose. It was a losing battle.”

Mrs Stoute was born Patricia Phipps and grew up in Barton. Her first husband George Bedding died three years ago from cancer. The couple had no children.

She worked at various branches of Boots over the past 20 years and more recently was a part-time consultant at the branch in Cowley Retail Park.

The couple met around four years ago when Mr Churchill-Stoute carried out repairs at her home in Gidley Way, in Horspath.

They married at Bullingdon Registry Office, in Wheatley, last summer. Mr Churchill-Stoute, who has nine children from two previous marriages, said his wife confessed to him her debts shortly before her death and the couple had sought help from a recovery agency a week before she died.

She was paying back £400 a month to cover a loan from Barclays Bank.

He said his wife left to go shopping on the day she died and gave no indication she was upset.

He added: “It was an ordinary morning. She kissed me goodbye and I said I’ll see you later.

“I waited and waited and she never came home. I was worried but thought she must have got caught up somewhere.

“Then the doorbell rang and there was a policeman at my door.

“She was a wonderful person. I was on my own for 10 years and she was the best thing that ever happened to me.

“I thought my luck had changed and we would spend the rest of our lives together.

“I’m going to miss her. There’s no one like her in the world.”