David Venables: Farmer convicted of wife’s murder 40 years after hiding body in septic tank

A retired pig farmer has been found guilty of the 1982 murder of his wife, whose body was found hidden in a septic tank at their farmhouse 37 years later.

David Venables, 89, tried to blame serial killer Fred West for Brenda Venables’s murder, but was convicted by a 10-2 majority verdict on Friday (15 July).

During the pensioner’s month-long trial, his team said West had links to the Worcestershire village of Kempsey, where Brenda disappeared in May 1982.

Venables will be sentenced next Wednesday.

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