Postie killed wife over affair with police officer
AJEALOUS husband killed his PR boss wife after a ‘ fixation’ about her affair with a police officer and then hanged himself, an inquest heard.
Postman Andrew Davies, 45, bludgeoned wife Yvonne, 46, with a hammer and then stabbed her to death at their home in Cheadle Hulme after dropping off their eightyear-old daughter at school.
An inquest heard the couple had appeared to be happily married but their relationship became strained around Christmas of 2013 when Mr Davies developed a ‘fixation’ about an affair his wife had had with police officer Mark Clifton.
He also uncovered flirtatious text messages she had sent to a male colleague at Central Manchester University Hospitals Trust where she was head of communications.
Mrs Davies confided in a friend she had tried to assure her husband the flirtation with the un-named work colleague – where she suggested they could ‘book a room’ for a work night out – was nothing more than ‘a bit of fun’, the court heard.
Greater Manchester Police officer Mark Clifton told the hearing he had been involved in an ‘infrequent’ sexual relationship with Mrs Davies but it had come to an end.
On January 16 last year Mr Davies walked his daughter to school, returned home and killed his wife, who was dressed and ready to go to work, sending a text to his sister saying simply ‘sorry’ at 9.52am.
The inquest heard it was likely he had first bludgeoned his wife over the head with a hammer – she had suffered a depressed skull fracture – before stabbing her repeatedly in the neck with one or both of two knives found close to her body in the kitchen.
He wrote a note of apology which was found on a computer keyboard in the study, slashed his wrists and then hanged himself.
The inquest heard Mr Davies had challenged his wife about the affair in the ‘days and weeks’ leading up to their deaths, according to senior investigating officer Duncan Thorpe who told the hearing the husband’s concerns were ‘justified’.
The court heard when Mrs Davies failed to show for work that day, a friend called Mr Clifton – who had known her for about 23 years.
The off-duty officer used a neighbour’s hammer to smash his way into the couple’s home on Meadway Road, finding Mr Davies hanged as soon as he walked into the home and then, following a search, discovering Mrs Davies dead in the kitchen.
When police arrived at the scene, Mr Clifton was seen coming down the stairs on his phone saying ‘your colleagues have arrived’ although officers failed to check his warrant card, the court heard.
Mr Clifton was accused by the Coroner John Pollard, at Stockport Coroner’s Court, of speaking ‘weasel words’ when he claimed his relationship with Mrs Davies had simply ‘gone too far’ rather than being an ‘affair’.
“That’s what it was. I was at my low point. Yvonne used to have this sixth sense. It was very infrequent,” he replied.
Mr Pollard, describing the deaths as ‘desperately sad’, recorded verdicts that Mrs Davies had been unlawfully killed and Mr Davies had taken his own life
He added he would be writing to GMP as he was ‘ far from happy that the investigation was carried out as properly as it ought to have been particularly with an off- duty officer wandering round what’s clearly a murder scene which ought to have been forensically protected’.
Coroner ‘far from happy’ investigation carried out as properly as it ought to have been