Shropshire Star

Judge to sum up in Alethea Taylor murder trial

A judge was expected to start summing up today in the case of a Shropshire funeral director accused of killing his missing wife.

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John Taylor denies murdering Alethea Taylor. Police believe he killed the 63-year-old retired teacher at the home they shared in Orleton, near Ludlow, before disposing of her body.

Taylor, 61, reported his wife missing on January 19 last year and she has not been seen since.

Mr Justice Julian Flaux was due to start summarising the key facts of the case at Worcester Crown Court this morning after both prosecution and defence barristers delivered closing speeches yesterday.

The jury could be sent out to consider its verdict later today.

The court has heard how Taylor had started an affair with Alison Dearden six months before his wife's disappearance. But Taylor has denied murdering his wife.

Prosecuting counsel Mr Michael Burrows told the jury they could be sure John Taylor had killed his wife of 16 years.

Mr Burrows said she had been murdered after 'annoying' her husband by storming out of a choir practice because she claimed someone was sitting in her seat on January 18 last year.

Mrs Taylor was reported missing by Taylor, the following day and has not been seen since. Worcester Crown Court heard he then continued his relationship with widow Alison Dearden, with whom he had been having a passionate affair for six months before his wife's disappearance.

Mr Burrows, delivering his closing speech yesterday, also dismissed suggestions that double killer Stephen Farrow, currently behind bars for the murders of Betty Yates, from Bewdley, and Reverend John Suddards, from Gloucestershire, could be responsible.

He said: "The true ID of Alethea Taylor's killer is revealed by the words and actions of John Taylor after her death."

But defence counsel Mr Ignatius Hughes QC, also delivering his closing remarks, urged the jury not to be swayed by Taylor's behaviour behind his wife's back.

He said: "A large amount of time in this case has been spent showing John Taylor to be a man that cheated and cheated on his wife, that didn't care for her because the marriage had become sexless and, in his case, loveless. It is not a nice thing – but it does not make him guilty of murder."

Taylor, who denies murder, is accused of killing Mrs Taylor at their home in Mortimer Drive, Orleton, near Ludlow, and disposing of her body.

The trial continues.

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