Hilton Shaw Get 12 Years for the Murder of His Wife

A 59-year-old man was on Sunday sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for the murder of his wife at their Lyndhurst Lake home, in Nottingham Road, in 2007.

Judge Vivienne Niles-Duner, sitting in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, found Hilton Shaw responsible for the death of his wife, Susan Margaret Shaw, 36, on June 3, 2007...

Darren John Bridgeman in Jail for Life for Murdering His Ex-Girlfriend in Florida

A Worcestershire man who fled to Britain after murdering his former girlfriend in Florida has been jailed for life. Darren John Bridgeman, aged 37, from Malvern, was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting Tracy Bennawit He was also found guilty of attempted second-degree murder for wounding her new boyfriend....

The court rejected arguments that Bridgeman was only guilty of manslaughter because he acted in the heat of passion...

Man 'murdered wife, then listed ways to dump body'

A businessman murdered his wife after she filed for divorce and then drew up a list of ways to dispose of her body, a court was told yesterday.

Martin Hale, 51, murdered his wife Maureen, 42, after a row at their home in Surrey nearly 10 years ago, a jury was told. After killing her on 22 June 1999, Mr Hale borrowed a shovel and a car from a work colleague and also offered another friend, who ran a pet cemetery, £20,000 to hire the incinerator, it is alleged.

When police searched Mr Hale, who claims that his wife simply walked out of their home in Thames Ditton never to be seen again, they found a letter in his briefcase with a list, numbered from one to four, which read: "At sea, by fire, by acid, landsite," Kingston Crown Court was told...

Man murdered make-up artist wife

David Chenery-Wickens, 52, of Duddleswell, had denied the murder of Diane, 48, and dumping her body after she vanished in January 2008.

He told Lewes Crown Court she had planned to disappear to escape financial and work worries.

Chenery-Wickens was told he would serve a minimum of 18 years in jail.

The TV make-up artist's decomposed body was found off Worth Lane, Little Horsted, near Uckfield, last May...

HSBC boss in court over wife's murder

AN HSBC boss appeared in court last week charged with the murder of his wife at their suburban home.

Neil Ellerbeck, 45, of Canford Close, Enfield, appeared at the Old Bailey on Monday, February 23, and will return on August 10 for a two-week trial.

He is charged with strangling to death his wife of 14 years, Katherine, 46, on November 14 last year.

Ellerbeck was arrested at the scene and later charged with the murder.

Mrs Ellerbeck was pronounced dead at 12.10pm and a post mortem at Hornsey Mortuary on Saturday gave cause of death as asphyxiation and manual compression of the neck...

Man murdered wife in house fire

A father-of-five has been found guilty of murder after locking his wife in a room and setting fire to their home.

Alan Stead, of Meynell Fields, Loggerheads, in Staffordshire, denied killing his wife, Anita, in May 2002.

She died in a room he built in the garage of their home used to hide a computer game counterfeiting operation, Stafford Crown Court heard.

Stead, arrested after police agreed to reopen the case, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years.

Prosecutors alleged Stead wanted to kill his wife because she had told him she wanted a divorce...

Fatal stabbings at 30-year high

The number of fatal stabbings in England and Wales rose from 269 to 270 last year, the highest total for at least 30 years, the Home Office said yesterday.

But statisticians added that this was a similar level to that seen in four out of the last six years and pointed out that fatal shootings had fallen from 59 to 53 over the same period.

The supplementary volume of Home Office crime figures published yesterday, which cover homicides, gun crime and intimate violence for the year to April 2008, also shows that the overall murder rate in England and Wales rose by 2% from 758 in 2006-07 to 773 in 2007-08...

Adulterous minister 'murdered BBC make-up artist wife'

David Chenery-Wickens, 51, was described as a "sexual predator" who had the "clearest motive and the obvious opportunity" to kill his 48-year-old wife Diane, an award-winning artist who had worked on programmes including Dead Ringers, The League Of Gentlemen and Casualty.

Opening the case at his trial for her murder, prosecutor Philip Katz QC said Mrs Chenery-Wickens had discovered her husband was cheating on her and phoning adult men-only chatlines.

Although qualified as a spiritualist minister, he rarely worked, had mounting debts and relied financially on his wife, Mr Katz said. He had also untruthfully told friends that he and his wife were going through a divorce and that their home was on the market, he alleged...

50 children a day suffering sexual abuse, says NSPCC

Children are subjected to more than 50 sex attacks every day, figures obtained by the NSPCC reveal today.

In almost a quarter of cases uncovered by the charity, the victims were ten or younger. The number of crimes against girls was six times higher than against boys.

There were 20,758 sex crimes against under-18s reported to police in 2008, including rape, gross indecency and incest, the children's charity said...

Man denies wife's garage murder

Alan Stead, 41, of Meynell Fields, Loggerheads, Staffordshire, denies murdering his wife Anita in May 2002 and called the fire a tragic accident.

Stephen Lineham QC, prosecuting, said Mr Stead killed his wife because she had told him she wanted to divorce him.

Mr Lineham told Stafford Crown Court the garage room was a "secret place"...

Wife murdered after Costa retirement dream ended in drunken rows

A man who murdered his wife after their Spanish retirement dream turned into a nightmare of drunken rows was jailed for life yesterday.

Allen Heard, 63, strangled Patricia with a nylon rope on her 58th birthday then drove 22 miles to mountains and buried her in a shallow grave.

He reported her missing and told their grown-up son and daughter Mark and Linda he last saw her when he dropped her off in Benidorm...

Legal change: Abused woman who kill could escape murder

Victims of domestic abuse will be able to use the defence of "fear of serious violence" against a murder charge, if they can demonstrate a "slow burn" of abuse.

It would see them face a charge of manslaughter instead.

The Coroners and Justice Bill will also propose scrapping the current defence of provocation for all but the most extreme cases.

It means a man who kills his wife after discovering she was unfaithful - a so-called crime of passion - will no longer have the defence of provocation...