A mother and daughter killed themselves in a horrific suicide pact after a warped fraudster trapped them in a staggeringly bizarre web of threats and lies. Yesterday, the full extent of Linsey Cotton’s heartless deception was disclosed in court. Cotton, a single mother of two from West Lothian, invented a phantom girlfriend, a bogus stem cell trial, a fictitious murdering doctor and a non-existent government cover-up and she made up a whole cast of characters for her charade. Cotton, 33, used 15 phones, two laptops and two tablet computers to convince her victims she was more than a dozen different people. At various points, she played a nurse, a barrister and government officials. Her scam netted her nearly £5000 and a hoard of expensive gifts. But she also terrorised Margaret McDonough and daughter Nicola until they checked into a Premier Inn, took pills and slashed themselves. Margaret, 52, died within hours of being found at the Greenock hotel on ...