Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SEX , LIES ..MURDER
Dad throttled mum after affair with my girlfriend. I will never forgive him but I will always love her
A MAN has forgiven his lover after she had a fling with his dad, who then killed his mum.
Devastated Gary Searle insisted the sordid episode brought him and Anastasia Pomiateeva, 39, even closer.
He said: “We love each other so much.” But he disowned dad Stephen, 64, who was yesterday convicted of murdering wife Anne, 62.
during his trial, he said: “I was a stupid old sod and made a massive mistake.
“I totally admitted everything. She [Anne] was extremely upset, that goes without saying.”
Anastasia confessed everything to Gary. She said: “I wanted him to know the truth, I wanted him to know everything.”
The court heard that the messy affair ripped the Searle family apart. Gary, who has two brothers, Stephen Jr, 29, and 41-year-old Christopher, broke off contact with his dad.
But despite the turmoil he caused, determined Searle continued trying to contact Anastasia, even “stalking her” and following her to supermarkets and baby groups.
She also found out he had been obsessed with her for years, even compiling a sick photo collection on his computer.
Anastasia said: “He had pictures of me from before I met Gary stored on his computer.
“He had downloaded them from Facebook and superimposed my head on to the bodies of porn stars. I was scared of him. Me and Gary changed our numbers to stop him contacting us.”
The court heard Searle’s fling with Anastasia led to tragedy on December 30 last year, when Searle had the murderous row with Anne.
After smothering his wife of 45 years, he phoned police and told them: “I’ve just killed my wife.” He claimed he strangled sushi factory worker Anne in self-defence after she attacked him with a steak knife at their £320,000 home.
But jurors rejected his concocted story and took just three and a half hours to convict him of murdering her with a choke hold he learned during military training.
Searle, recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, held his head in his hands following the verdict. He had asked to attend yesterday’s sentencing hearing via videolink from HMP Norwich, complaining about the “unpleasant” prison van journey. But the judge insisted he be in court.
Searle, who had a nine-year military career, will be jailed for life today at Ipswich.
The court case has caused a deep rift
between the three brothers. Stephen Jnr wiped tears from his eyes as a statement he wrote was read out at court yesterday. He said: “As a result of what’s happened the relationship between me and my brothers has been torn apart.
“Not only have I lost my mum but because of what he’s done I have lost my dad too.
“I have lost all of my side of the family… I have no one to turn to.
“I feel completely broken, it’s going to take a long time to fix me, if I can ever be fixed.”
Searle was elected a UKIP councillor in the Stowmarket South ward on Suffolk county council in 2013. He was pictured with then party leader Nigel Farage.
He failed to be re-elected in May last year and was also unsuccessful when standing as an MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich.