Rejected lover found guilty of killing British expat in France
Court sentences gardener to 30 years in prison for murder of former advertising executive
A JILTED lover has been found guilty of the murder of a British expat, Patricia Wilson, at her rural French home.
Jean-Louis Cayrou, 54, a gardener, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for killing Ms Wilson, 58, following the collapse of their relationship, after the jury deliberated for almost five hours at the court in Rodez, southern France.
After the trial, lawyers for Ms Wilson’s family described the gardener as heartless for disposing of her body and preventing a proper burial.
Ms Wilson whose isolated stone cottage stood near the village of VabreTizac in the Aveyron, was last seen alive on August 17, 2012.
The court heard she had a threemonth relationship with Cayrou, her gardener, who telephoned her three times that day, and twice that evening.
Police said her web browsing history showed that after his second call she loaded a YouTube video of the singer Aretha Franklin. While watching this video the power was suddenly cut to her computer.
A search was launched after blood was discovered on the steps outside her cottage.
Cayrou was placed under formal investigation after police found DNA matching Ms Wilson’s in blood in his car. A medical examination found scratches on his arms. Her body was never found.
After the verdict her mother described how she had lost her best friend.
“I am pleased that justice has finally been done and that Mr Cayrou has been found guilty of this horrific crime,” said Jean Wilson, 84. “But this verdict is tinged with sadness as I will always have to live without the daughter who I loved from the bottom of my heart.”
Ms Wilson, a former advertising executive, from Welwyn Garden City, sold her property portfolio in Hertfordshire to buy the tumbledown cottage in 2008 with Donald Marcus, her long-time partner.
But locals said the keen artist had separated from him in 2011 and started a relationship with her gardener.
She broke it off shortly afterwards, complaining that he had been violent, prosecutors said.
The court heard she recounted to friends an episode after their split when she woke up in bed to find her ex-lover trying to suffocate her.
Kieran Mitchell, a lawyer for Jean Wilson, said: “Not content with cruelly taking her life, he disposed of her body so her family were unable to lay her to rest and then denied any part in the murder despite clear evidence of his guilt.”