KIDDERMINSTER MAN ALAN EVANS GUILTY OF HIS WIFE'S MURDER
An unfaithful husband from Kidderminster has been found guilty of murdering his wife after having a secret four-month affair with a married teaching assistant.Alan Evans, 35, broke down in the dock and held his head in his hands at Worcester Crown Court after being unanimously convicted of killing his wife Louise.
The five-week trial heard Evans sent a text to his mistress hours before dialling 999 to report finding his wife’s body at the bottom of the stairs at their home in Kidderminster, Worcestershire.
Evans, who worked as a welder, claimed during the trial that the 32-year-old had tripped and fallen as he slept in the lounge on the night of July 9 last year.
Jurors deliberated for four hours and 43 minutes before convicting Evans, who will be sentenced by Mr Justice Hickinbottom later today.
The Crown alleged during the trial that Evans probably smothered his wife and then used a skipping rope and a vacuum cleaner as props to stage an apparently fatal fall.
Medical evidence, including a fractured eye socket, proved Mrs Evans was assaulted before she fell down the stairs.
Other evidence also undermined Evans's account to police and the court, including testimony from those first on the scene that rigor mortis had left Mrs Evans's right arm sticking up in "a grotesque image of death".
The Crown said that Evans probably smothered his wife and tried to stage her death as an accident, with evidence of assault and subsequent staging.
The verdict has resulted in his conviction for domestic homicide.
