The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Killer cop had been demoted over behaviour
RETIRED COP INAPPROPRIATE WITH VULNERABLE WOMAN
A RETIRED cop who killed his wife was demoted before he left his force for being inappropriate with a vulnerable woman.
Alan Claxton’s appalling record of violence and abuse against his wife Wendy was revealed after he was found guilty of using ‘massive force’ causing her to fall down the stairs of their home.
Claxton, 74, left Wendy, 70, with 19 rib fractures, a ruptured aorta and broken spine, with a force of impact usually associated with falling from a building or being in a car crash.
He was found guilty of her manslaughter last week. He was jailed for nine years.
He was demoted from the job of acting inspector down to police constable again before he left Northumbria Police
“He had a record of being inappropriate with women and an appalling catalogue of violence against Wendy,” said a source. “That record goes back years.” He was convicted of offences dating back to 1991.
Footage of police at the marital home in Dunston, Gateshead, on May 8, 2019, shown during the trial, was filmed four months before she died.
It showed Wendy, herself a former officer, explaining her husband’s assault on her. He had dragged her by the hair and ear and threatened to kill her. Claxton was convicted of assaulting his wife in 1991 after using his fists to cause injury to her face, neck and back. He was given a probation order.
In 1999, he was given a probation order for using threatening behaviour. That also related to his wife after he smashed up the family home and threatened her with a knife.
In 2000, he was fined for possessing an offensive weapon after having a knife in the street then in 2001 he was convicted of battery, threats to kill and affray in relation to his wife. Jailed for three months, that sentence was varied after time in custody.
In contrast, his wife of 45 years had been a police officer with an exemplary record as custody sergeant in the West End of Newcastle.
“Wendy was one of the first female sergeants in Northumbria Police,” a former colleague said. “She was promoted in 1977. She was also a federation representative, representing officers’ interests in force for many years.
“She joined in an era when you had to ask permission to marry as a female officer. She was loved by everyone who worked with her.”
Det Ch Insp Barr, senior investigating officer, added: “Claxton tried to cover up what he did, telling us Wendy had fallen down the stairs because she was drunk.
“But the evidence we uncovered showed this to be a complete fabrication and an attempt to cover up his own callous offending.
“The investigation established Wendy had been a victim of repeated alcohol-fuelled domestic violence by Alan throughout their marriage.”
Wendy’s friends Denise and Graeme Spearman, both 61, spotted her front door open with just a dim light ‘flickering’ inside before they found her body in bed upstairs.
She had been dead for hours. Her husband was inebriated, holding a whisky bottle and barely capable of speech, telling them: “I think she is dead.”
Graeme said: “He was roaring drunk, totally incomprehensible. She had been dead for a long time, I would have said for more than a day.”
He added: “He came over the following week after he had to go into detox. He was so drunk, he was in a coma. He had gone to a neighbour to ask for money for another bottle of whisky when she was either dead in the house or dying.”
Denise, who works in hotel marketing and events, added: “We used to see her for a get-togethers with our neighbours. She was a genuinely lovely, lovely woman.”
Northumbria Police declined to comment on the demotion of Claxton.