The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Ex-PC who strangled lover facing possible increase in jail term
A womanising married police officer who strangled his long-term lover after she revealed their affair to his wife will have his jail term reviewed by the Court of Appeal.
Former Dorset Police constable Timothy Brehmer killed motherof-two Claire Parry after she sent a text message from his phone to his wife saying: “I am cheating on you.”
Mrs Parry, 41, died during a “kerfuffle” in his car in the car park of the Horns Inn in West Parley, Dorset, on May 9 last year.
Brehmer, of Hordle, Hampshire, claimed the married nurse accidentally suffered the fatal injury while he was trying to push her out of his Citroen car so he could drive away.
He was cleared of murder by a jury following a trial at Salisbury Crown Court but had previously admitted Mrs Parry’s manslaughter.
Brehmer, then 41, was jailed for 10-and-a-half years in October.
His sentence has been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
Lawyers representing the AGO were due to argue at a hearing yesterday before three senior judges, including Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, that the jail term handed to Brehmer was too short and should be increased.
The court was also to hear a bid by Brehmer to have his sentence reduced at the same hearing.
Trial judge Mr Justice Jacobs said in October that he sentenced Brehmer for manslaughter on the basis that he “lost control” after Mrs Parry sent the text message to his wife, Martha, also a police officer.