A Nanaimo woman testified Monday at a coroner's inquest that she was beaten, tied up and sexually assaulted by her estranged husband shortly before he was killed in a police chase while abducting their two-year-old daughter.

Sarah Bethell was the first witness at the coroner's inquest looking into the deaths of her ex-husband and a little boy in the Vancouver Island city on Nov. 8, 2004.

William Jeffrey Bethell and four-year-old Seth Kinser Thornett died in the crash that ended the police chase.
(CBC)

She told the jury that William Jeffrey Bethell, 46, who was under a restraining order, attacked her after breaking into her home.

She said he told her he planned to pick up their two-year-old daughter at her pre-school and their nine-year-old daughter at her school and kill them both. He said he then planned to take his own life.

After he left for the pre-school, Bethell said she managed to untie herself and call police from a neighbour's house.

Two die in police chase

The RCMP arrived at the daycare just as her estranged husband was driving away with the two-year-old.

The chase ended moments later when he crashed into two other vehicles. He died and his daughter was seriously injured.

A man in one vehicle was seriously injured, and four-year-old Seth Kinser Thornett, who had been a passenger in the minivan, died in hospital several days later.

A tearful Bethell told the inquest she was sorry her problems with her husband ended up hurting so many people.

The coroner's jury is expected to make recommendations dealing with police chases as well as police protection for people at risk of violence at the hands of estranged partners.