Jailed for life, crowbar wife killer snared by his socks

A BANK executive who murdered his cancer-stricken wife with a crowbar before trying to cover his tracks was jailed for at least 20 years yesterday.

David Pomphret, 51, who struck Ann Marie, 49, over the head more than 30 times with the weapon, only admitted killing her when evidence – including a speck of blood on one of his socks – placed him at the scene of the attack.

The former IT specialist denied murder, saying he snapped when his wife called him ‘useless’ following years of abuse, but was found guilty at Liverpool Crown Court last week.

Yesterday a judge told him he had exaggerated his wife’s behaviour on the night of the murder at their stables in Burtonwood, near Warrington, in November, to help his case.

Judge David Aubrey said: ‘I’m satisfied you had not lost your control and you did what you did in a calm, calculated manner with planning or in anger.’

Jailing Pomphret for life, the judge said: ‘It was an act designed, as you admitted... “to get away with it”. You may well have done so had it not been for one factor: You forgot to change your socks.’