Councillor Murders Wife For Questioning His Affairs With Son’s Girlfriend

Stephen Searle, A former UK councillor, has been found guilty of murdering his wife in a disagreement over his affair with son’s girlfriend.

The former Royal Marine Stephen Searle, 64, told the Jury that his wife died in their £400,000 home in Stowmarket during an angry row, when  he put his hand round his wife, Anne Searle’s neck for 20-25 seconds after she stabbed him.

Responding emergency services could not save the life of Anne after Searle called the police that he had killed his wife on the 30th of December, 2017.

He says he was acting in self-defence after a row erupted about an affair Searle had been having with his son’s long-term partner, Anastasia Pomiateeva, 39.

Prosecutor Andrew Jackson confirmed that Searle had been in a romantic relationship with Ms Pomiateeva, which was kept hidden from the rest of the family until it was discovered in June 2017.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how Searle and his wife of 45 years had been drinking heavily on the day of her death.

“I felt a stinging. I looked down and I saw a blade going backwards and forwards.

“It was in Anne’s hand. She was stabbing me. I tried to grab it and she pulled her arm away. There was a lot of noise, shouting and hollering, and I was pleading with her to give me the knife.

“We both stumbled. She fell backwards and I fell forwards. It was such madness.” Seale told the court.

After strangling her in what prosecutors say was a military-style choke hold, he later went back into the house and “realised things were certainly not right”.

He said: “She was a sort of grey colour. I held her hand and she was just limp. She was not warm. I had seen bodies before and I thought, ‘She’s gone’.”

Jurors were earlier played the 999 call he made around an hour after the killing. Searle told the call handler: “I have just killed my wife… Suffocation…. bit of a bizarre situation.”

He also told Ipswich Crown Court: “Eventually she stopped struggling and I said thank ‘f’ for that. I said, ‘I am going to have a fag’. She didn’t reply.”

Ms Lawrence told the court: “I think she thought better of it being plastered all over the internet. I think in the end she confronted him about it.

“She told me she had spoken to him. He admitted to it and said it was with their daughter-in-law.”