Woman and lover who shared sexual fantasies about killing her husband get life for his murder
Angela Taylor and Paul Cannon attempted to make her husband William's death look like an accident
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A woman and her lover who shared fantasies about having sex in her multi-millionaire husband's blood before they murdered him, have been jailed for life.
After William Taylor refused to grant her a divorce, Angela Taylor, 53, and Paul Cannon, 54, killed the 69-year-old grandfather.
St Albans Crown Court heard that Mr Taylor owned a significant amount of land and farms in the Gosmore area of Hertfordshire and his wife was not satisfied with the property she had been given.
He disappeared days before his 70th birthday last June and his his skeletal remains was found waist-deep in mud on a secluded riverbank near one of his farms, eight months later.
Next to his remains were a bottle of Baileys liqueur, a teacup, an eaten corn on the cob and some rope.
The court heard that Taylor and Cannon had attempted to make it seem as though he had died accidentally while having a picnic after getting stuck in the mud.
The bizarre staging was a “vain attempt” to make the scene look like a suicide or accident, the court heard.
Sentencing them to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years on Friday, judge Michael Kay QC said: “Only Paul Cannon and Angela Taylor and perhaps an unknown accomplice know what happened that night."
He added: "The evidence suggests that, having been lured out of his house, William Taylor was attacked in the farmyard and killed there by means of strangulation or suffocation. He loved Angela Taylor to the end despite whatever she did to him and however much she did not deserve that love."
The court had earlier heard that the couple were fuelled by a ”venomous hatred“ of Mr Taylor and his refusal to grant his wife of 20 years and mother of three of his children a divorce.
For months, they had secretly revelled in violently pornographic fantasies about torturing and maiming the landowner, who suffered from arthritis and tinnitus.
In lurid WhatsApp messages, they discussed showering together as Mr Taylor's blood ran down the drain and cutting his ligaments and fingers off.
Taylor and Cannon had exchanged 28,000 messages between February and June last year on the encrypted app, believing they were secure and could not be accessed.
Cannon deleted the chats but they were later recovered by police in the memory of his phone.
Judge Kay said the ”primary reason“ for the killing ”may be simply the extent to which Taylor in particular loathed the very sight of Mr Taylor and felt she could never be rid of him“.
The family estate and property across Hertfordshire was collectively worth ”tens of millions of pounds“, the court heard.
The Taylors had married in 1997 but separated in 2015. They split the estate according to a post-marital agreement but in March 2018, Taylor began divorce proceedings against her husband’s wishes.
Mr Taylor, who penned a love letter to his wife in an attempt to win her back, had given her two farms worth more than £1m debt-free in 2015 as part of a financial settlement.
After she began a secret affair with digger driver Cannon in late 2017, she promised to move back in with her husband if he signed over half of his property to her in a ”duplicitous and calculating“ move motivated by ”insatiable greed“, the judge said.
"The truth was she hated Mr Taylor and she and Cannon were already plotting to kill him,” Judge Kay added. "There is an old adage which is peculiarly applicable to this case: money cannot buy you happiness.
"The Taylor family ... collectively and individually owned properties and farm land near Hitchin worth tens of millions of pounds. However, a toxic combination of jealously, hatred and greed rendered all of them unhappy.”
The pair attempted to blame Mr Taylor’s eldest son, from a previous marriage and their sentence was increased because they conducted “lengthy and significant planning” of the murder and concealed his body.
Taylor and Cannon were also sentenced to two years imprisonment for setting fire to Mr Taylor’s Land Rover, in an arson attack he reported a week before his disappearance.
The judge said he saw “no reason to distinguish between the defendants” and acknowledged that while Taylor was probably not involved in the physical killing, she was the “driving force behind it”.
Both Taylor, of Charlton Road in Hitchin, and Cannon, of Pirton Road in Hitchen, have “no comment” interviews to police when they were arrested.
Det Ch Insp Carl Foster, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said he hoped “their time behind bars is spent reflecting on their evil actions”.
He added: “Bill was a well-loved father and grandfather and not long after he was reported missing, he should have been celebrating his 70th birthday with his loved ones. My thoughts remain with Bill’s family, who have acted with dignity throughout the investigation and trial. While nothing will end their pain, I hope that this sentence gives them peace of mind, knowing that Bill’s murderers are facing justice in prison.”
Additional reporting by Press Association