Guilty, father who killed wife over affair with joiner
A FATHER who stabbed his wife to death after learning of her affair with a joiner was found guilty of her murder yesterday.
Stuart Gallear, 51, claimed he ‘lost it’ when Mandy, 42, broke the news she was leaving him for Mark Prescott.
Accountant Mrs Gallear told her husband of 18 years: ‘I love him more than you.’
As she emptied the dishwasher, he grabbed a 7in knife from the cutlery drawer and plunged it three times into her chest, only stopping when she pleaded: ‘What are you doing? I still love you.’
Gallear, a former warehouse manager, admitted manslaughter but denied murder.
Yesterday it took a jury took six-and-a-half hours to reject the claim that he had never intended to kill her or cause her serious bodily harm.
He showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered. Relatives Stuart Gallear: Knife attack of the mother-of-two spoke of their relief at the conviction. One said: ‘That’s what we were going for. I am so happy. That has made my year.’
Gallear had told Manchester Crown Court: ‘I cannot remember what was going through my mind but I just lost it. I must have stabbed her. There was blood on the knife. I can remember my arm moving.’
He said he then came to his senses and phoned 999, saying: ‘I’ve just stabbed my wife.’ As he was arrested, Gallear told police: ‘I understand, I know I’ve made a mistake. I accept full responsibility.’
In court he was asked by prosecutor Alaric Bassano: ‘Did you want to kill your wife?’
Gallear, of Hindley near Wigan, replied: ‘No, I loved her to bits. It does not matter how many times you ask me, I would never want to hurt or kill anyone, let alone my wife.’
The couple met when she was in her early 20s and according to friends was ‘ swept off her feet’. They married in 1998, and had daughter Amy two years later, followed by Katie two years after that.
The Gallears are said to have enjoyed a happy marriage for some years. ‘They idolised each other,’ one friend said.
But in 2015 she embarked on an affair with joiner Mr Prescott, a family friend who had worked on the couple’s house.
Gallear denied having been ‘consumed with jealousy’ and insisted he had not planned to kill Mandy. He is due to be sentenced next week, and faces the possibility of life in prison.