ADULTERY AND DECEIT BEHIND ‘HAPPY’ FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH

IT looks like any other photograph from a happy family gathering – a brother, his sister and their respective partners smile as they perch on a wall at the wedding of a relative in 2014. But four years on, this photo now stands as a chilling reminder of the adultery, dishonesty and deceit that lies behind the murder of midwife Samantha Eastwood. She sits on the left, next to her then-fiancé John Peake, 34. Beside him is his sister Katie Stirling and her husband Michael Stirling, both 32. Yesterday Mr Stirling, a former fencing contractor and landscape gardener, admitted murdering Miss Eastwood, 28, following what was described in court as a ‘longstanding’ affair. Miss Eastwood started dating Mr Peake, a manager at a company in Staffordshire which owns and operates a fleet of steam locomotives, in 2010. They were a couple for seven years, with Mr Peake moving into Miss Eastwood’s home in Stockton Brook on the edge of Stoke-on-Trent. During the period the couple socialised regularly with the Stirlings, who lived a few miles away in the Northwood area of the city. All appeared to be well and they had been due to marry in June, until suddenly the midwife ended their engagement at the start of the year.