Alethea Taylor murder trial jury to consider verdict
A jury will begin deliberations on Monday in the case of an undertaker from the Shropshire border accused of murdering his wife and disposing of her body.
The jury in the case of John Taylor was sent out at Worcester Crown Court on Friday afternoon.
Mr Justice Flaux finished summing up the case on Friday before discharging the jury of six men and six women until Monday.
Taylor denies murdering his 63-year-old wife Alethea at their home in Mortimer Drive, Orleton, near Ludlow, and disposing of her body.
The 61-year-old reported retired schoolteacher Mrs Taylor missing on January 19 last year, the day after she vanished, and she has not been seen since.
The trial has heard how Taylor had started an affair with widow Mrs Alison Dearden six months before his wife's disappearance.
But Taylor has said he has no idea where she is.
Prosecuting counsel Mr Michael Burrows told the court Mrs Taylor 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.
Mr Burrows told the jury they could be sure John Taylor had killed his wife of 16 years.
But defence counsel Mr Ignatius Hughes QC, in his closing speech, urged the jury not to be swayed by Taylor's behaviour behind his wife's back.
