Farmer accused of murdering wife ‘showed more affection to the family dog,’ court told

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A pig farmer accused of murdering his wife and dumping her body in a septic tank showed her “little affection” and preferred the family dog, a court heard.

David Venables, 89, is said by prosecutors to have “got away with murder” for nearly 40 years by disposing of wife Brenda Venables’ body.

The remains of Ms Venables, who was 48 when she vanished, were found in the underground cesspit at the former marital home, Quaking House Farm, in Kempsey, Worcestershire, in 2019.

Worcester Crown Court has previously heard Mr Venables, then 49, had rekindled a “long-standing” affair he was having with his mother’s former carer, Lorraine Styles, months before his wife disappeared.

Mr Venables denied having any other extramarital affairs and claimed he and his wife’s relationship remained a sexual one and that they continued to share a bed, right up until she vanished.

However the jury heard evidence from notes made by Ms Venables’ consultant psychiatrist, who she was seeing for treatment for depression in March 1982, saying the couple had not slept together since 1968 and had not shared a bed for three years.

Her psychiatrist called Mr Venables a typical farmer “displaying little to no affection to his wife, but showering praise on the family dog”.

Mr Venables told the court he fell in love with his “good-looking” wife after meeting her at a local farmers’ dance in 1957.

Giving evidence for the first time on Wednesday, the defendant who wore earphones to hear the questions, said Ms Venables had been a member of the Kidderminster Young Farmers when he met her in 1957, when he was 25 and she was 23.

Asked by Timothy Hannam QC, defending, what attracted him to Ms Venables, he replied: “She was always very pleasant.

“Whenever you went out she was always good company and we just got on well together.

“She was very good-looking, just generally appealing.”

The court heard the couple married on 1 June 1960 at Rushock Church and had their honeymoon in Jersey.

Mr Venables said his farmer father offered him land at Quaking House - where Brenda’s body was found - and the couple moved in in February 1961.

He said that six years after marrying Ms Venables, he became “friendly” with Ms Styles, who also lived in Kempsey.

Ms Styles had initially worked at the family’s farm nursery, but became a carer for Mr Venables’ mother and grandmother – and met the pig farmer when he started giving her lifts home.

Asked by his barrister, Timothy Hannam QC, if the relationship with Ms Styles became sexual, Mr Venables replied: “Yes – which I very much regretted.”

Ms Styles, who has since died, said in a witness statement - previously read to the jury - that she and Mr Venables had an affair lasting 14 years, from the late 1960s until 1982.

She claimed Mr Venables had promised to leave his wife and live with her at her home in Worcester, and that he had spoken of divorcing Ms Venables.

Mr Hannam asked: “Was Lorraine Styles someone for whom you would have left your wife?”

Mr Venables said: “No, definitely not.

“Well, she was such a volatile temperament and I found that out many years ago.”

Earlier describing Ms Styles to court, he said: “She was friendly enough but she had an erratic nature.

“Sometimes she was quite normal and then she’d be bad-tempered and moody.”

He denied they had had what prosecutors described as a “long-standing” relationship, adding there were “very big gaps” when he would not see or speak with her.

He said they had contact around late 1982 - after Ms Venables had disappeared - when Ms Styles turned up at the martial home.

Mr Venables said: “She came to my house one day quite unannounced and said, ‘Now you’re on your own I can come live with you’.

“I said, ‘Well that’s never going to happen’.

“In fact she used a lot of verbal abuse to me, and got in her car, and drove away at great speed down the drive.”

Mr Venables said he did not see Ms Styles “for a long time” after his wife disappeared in early May 1982.

But he claimed that when they did have contact they “just talked about what had happened and that was all”, denying they rekindled their sexual relationship, as Ms Styles had claimed.

Mr Hannam asked: “Did Lorraine have any plans for your relationship?”

Mr Venables replied: “Obviously she would have been only too pleased if I’d gone with her but I’d had no intentions of ever doing that.”

Recalling the night he last saw his wife, he said the family had been sowing potatos in a field on 3 May - a bank holiday Monday.

Earlier, Ms Venables ”seemed to be enjoying playing with the puppy” on the hearth rug and he noticed nothing unusual in her mood that evening or after they went to bed.

But asked if she was “there next to you” when he awoke at 6.30am the following morning, he replied: “No, not when I woke up.”

Mr Venables, of Elgar Drive, Kempsey, denies murdering his wife between 2 May and 5 May 1982.

The trial continues, and is scheduled to last six weeks.

Additional reporting by agencies