Sorry, I’ve been a very naughty boy
Life sentence looms for ex-Marine who strangled his Scots wife in row over affair with son’s partner
A FoRMeR Ukip councillor who strangled his Scots wife after having an affair with their son’s partner was facing a life sentence in jail last night.
Stephen Searle, 64, throttled his spouse of 45 years Anne in a choke hold he was taught during unarmed combat training in the Royal Marines, jurors were told.
He then told a 999 call handler ‘I’ve... er... just killed my wife’ before adding he ‘had been a naughty boy’.
A jury found the ex-commando and Ukip parliamentary candidate guilty of 62-year-old Mrs Searle’s murder after just three-and-a-half hours of deliberation yesterday.
The six day trial heard that he had been taught the killing method as part of his training in unarmed combat during his nine years in the Royal Marines.
Searle, who served with 45 Commando in Arbroath, Angus, insisted his wife died after he lost control of himself while acting in self-defence and that he did not mean to kill her or cause her serious harm.
But a jury of six men and six women at Ipswich Crown Court found him guilty of murder yesterday.
Judge Mr Justice Green adjourned sentencing until today, but warned Searle that he faced a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years, adding: ‘The question is to how I raise it or lower it.’
Searle previously admitted he had been ‘trained to kill’ during his nine years of service with the Royal Marines but choked back tears as he told a jury he had no intention of killing Glasgow-born Mrs Searle.
He said she had been left angry and upset last August after discovering his secret fling with their son Gary’s partner, Anastasia Pomiateeva, 39.
But he said the relationship with his wife had ‘gone back to normal’ after she insisted that she wanted to make their marriage work and he promised to end the affair. Prosecutor Andrew Jackson said that last Christmas Mrs Searle wrote on Facebook: ‘Happy Christmas to you all. Hope you are doing well. Have a good day. I hope I will still be here in 2018. We will see.’
Searle killed his wife on the night of December 30 last year after ‘yet another row’ about his fling, the prosecutor said.
The court heard how it would have taken only eight to 15 seconds for Mrs Searle to become unconscious if she had her airflow constricted.
But Mr Jackson said Searle would have had to continue suffocating his wife for up to several minutes to kill her. Searle, who was also a volunteer instructor for his local Royal Marines cadets, dialled 999 at 10.19pm and confessed he had killed his wife.
He then remarked to the police call handler: ‘Bit different for you tonight – Happy New year. It’s a bit of a bizarre situation, but never mind.’
Searle claimed he had accidentally killed his wife when he grabbed her by the throat after she tried to stab him.
He joined the Marines in 1970 and had been posted the following year to Arbroath.
He met his wife in a nightclub and they married in 1972. He stood as a Ukip parliamentary candidate for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich in the General election in June last year. He lost his Suffolk County Council seat in May last year.
In a statement outside court, Searle’s son Stevie, 29, said: ‘Today there has been justice for my mum, Anne Searle. The thing is, this year not only have I lost my mum but my dad as well.
‘The part that hurts me the most is I lost my mum but the person who took my mum away was also my best friend, who was my dad.’
‘A bizarre situation but never mind’