A man who bludgeoned his wife to death with a crowbar in a “frenzied” attack has been sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years.
David Pomphret was convicted of murder last week after it was found he had battered his wife Ann Marie more than 30 times over the head at the stables near their home in Cheshire last year.
Following the murder, Pomphret – a 51-year-old IT worker – called 999 saying he had found his wife of 22 years “very dead” in a pool of blood.
“There is brain and blood everywhere, and it looks like she has had her head beaten in,” he told the operator. Pomphret originally denied killing his wife and was given bail, but was “undone” four months later by a speck of blood found on his socks that showed he was at the scene.
He then had to change his story, the jury was told, and admitted manslaughter, tearfully telling
Liverpool Crown Court he “killed the woman I loved”.
Instead he blamed his “volatile” wife’s behaviour, denying murder and claiming a special defence of a temporary loss of control. Related... Domestic Violence Headline 'Justifies' Murder, Critics Claim