‘Control freak throttled wife then went to pub without care in world’
A BUSINESSMAN strangled his wife with her dressing gown cord before going on a drink and drugs binge, a court has heard.
Ian Hamer is accused of murdering his wife of 27 years, Joanne Hamer, 48, who was found lying partially clothed on a bed at their home in May last year.
Hamer, 54, has admitted manslaughter – saying his mental state at the time was such that he did not understand what he was doing – but denies murder.
Jason Pitter QC, opening the case for the prosecution, told the jury at Hull Crown Court yesterday that the couple’s marriage began to deteriorate at an early stage due to Hamer’s behaviour.
Jealous
He said: “He was somebody who was controlling and manipulative. He was also, as part of that, very jealous and possessive.”
The barrister said Hamer would control what his wife wore, check up on her, monitor her interactions on social media, and accuse her of having affairs.
He was also physically aggressive towards her and “heavy-handed” with their three children.
The police had also been called to their home on a number of occasions, the jury was told, along with claims that Hamer had an alcohol problem and had conducted at least one affair.
The court heard that, in the weeks leading up to her death, Mrs Hamer had either moved out or been thrown out of the marital home and was considering buying another property.
Hamer “wasn’t happy” as he would have to contribute financially and said he was being blackmailed, culminating in Mrs Hamer calling off the purchase and being “permitted” to move back into the family home.
Mr Pitter said: “Joanne Hamer wanted to give the defendant one last chance.”
But the barrister said Hamer was
A VANDAL who punched a hole in a £20million Picasso painting has been jailed for 18 months.
Shakeel Ryan Massey, 20, spent several minutes looking at the masterpiece before dropping his coat on the floor and running towards it, the court heard yesterday.
His fist smashed through protective glass in front of Bust Of A Woman hanging in London’s Tate Modern, ripping a hole in it.
Repairs to the oil painting are expected to cost up to £350,000 and take 18 months to complete, the gallery said.
The damage to the glass is estimated
Ian Hamer admitted killing his wife Joanne but is on trial after denying murdering her at the home they shared with their three children. The jury was told he went to a pub after the death and took cocaine communicating with another woman two days before his wife’s death and told the jury: “One conclusion you could reach is that he wanted her out of the way.”
On May 6 last year Hamer called his mother-in-law to tell her that his wife would not be contacting her as usual as she had a sore throat.
He also sent his son out throat lozenges.
Mr Pitter told the jury that Mrs Hamer’s mother later called police because she was concerned that “something terrible may have happened to her daughter”.
He said: “She was tragically correct. to buy at £5,000. Massey, from Willesden Green, north-west London, admitted one charge of criminal damage when he appeared at Inner London Crown Court. The judge heard that since the attack, on December 28 last year, he had given up the architecture degree he was studying for in Spain.
Judge Silas Reid told the court: “On the face of it he’s come to do what he did and he’s done it entirely deliberately.”
The portrait, painted in 1944 in Paris, depicts one of Picasso’s muses, the photographer Dora Maar, in a semi-abstract style.
In it she is wearing a yellow and green hat and green clothing while sitting on a black metal chair.
The vandalism comes after Wlodzimierz Umaniec, a selfproclaimed artist, damaged a Mark Rothko painting at the Tate Modern in 2012. He was jailed for two years.