Farmer ‘killed by wife and her lover’ after he refused to grant divorce

A MILLIONAIRE farmer who vanished days before his 70th birthday was murdered by his wife and her lover when he refused to divorce her after discovering their affair, a court heard.

Bill Taylor disappeared from his home at Harkness Hall in Gosmore, Herts, on June 3 last year. His body was discovered eight months later in a nearby river.

St Albans Crown Court yesterday heard how his wife, Angela Taylor, 53, and her lover, Paul Cannon, 54, who had been lodging with the family, became consumed by a “venomous hatred” of the father of four when he refused to end his marriage.

The pair allegedly hatched a plot to kill him, recruiting another man, Gwyn Griffiths, 60, to help.

Opening the case, John Price QC, prosecuting, told a jury that the plot developed over several months after Mr Taylor refused to grant his wife a divorce. “It will become apparent, we say, that he and she shared and encouraged each other in a venomous hatred for William Taylor. They loathed him,” he said.

The court heard how Mr Taylor met his second wife in 1992 and they married five years later, going on to have three children.

A successful farmer and businessman, he developed a large estate worth millions of pounds, but in 2014 his marriage faltered and Mrs Taylor requested a divorce.

He granted her a large financial settlement including two properties but refused to end the marriage.

Mr Price explained: “Mr Taylor had become over the years the owner of a very substantial farming estate. He was a very wealthy man by measurement of the value of the land that he owned. Despite settling her financial claims, he was not reconciled to the idea of a divorce and would not agree to it. He made it clear he wanted her back. She was not interested.”

In late 2017, Mr Cannon, a farm labourer, moved into Harkness Hall as a rent-free lodger and began a sexual relationship with Mrs Taylor.

When Mr Taylor found out about the affair he was “angered and distressed”, but again refused to agree to a divorce.

Mr Price told the jury that his “implacable” opposition to granting a divorce caused “bitter resentments” in his wife and her lover.

The pair allegedly began threatening and harassing Mr Taylor, with Mr Cannon allegedly telling him he would “get it” after the farmer confronted him about the affair, jurors heard.

Several days before he went missing, Mr Taylor’s Land Rover had been seriously damaged by fire after an accelerant-soaked towel was set alight inside it, the court heard.

DNA taken from the towel matched the profile of Mr Cannon and one of Mrs Taylor’s sons from a previous relationship. Mr Price said: “At the very least … this scientific evidence shows where the fabric used by the arsonist to start the fire came from – Mill Farm, the home of Angela Taylor.”

Mrs Taylor and Mr Cannon deny murder, arson, and an alternative charge of conspiracy to murder.

Mr Griffiths, 60, from Folkestone, Kent, denies murder and the alternate charge of conspiracy to murder.

The trial continues.

‘He and she shared and encouraged each other in a venomous hatred for Mr Taylor. They loathed him’