Ex-policeman jailed for plot to kill wife
A?retired police officer from Shropshire who hired a nightclub bouncer to kill his wife has been jailed for nine years.
Barry Harrison paid debt-ridden Tony Kent an advance cash sum of nearly £2,000 to run over Carol Harrison, his wife of 45 years, in a staged hit-and-run 'accident'.
The 66-year-old grandfather-of-five told Kent the investigation into her death would not be as intensive as if she were stabbed or shot, Birmingham Crown Court heard yesterday.
Harrison even selected the exact road and identified a number of suitable dates and times for it to be carried out to tie in with his wife's strict routine.
But his plan was foiled when Kent, who told police he never intended to go through with it, fled with the cash and his partner and three children to Cornwall. Police arrested both men after a friend of Kent's told detectives about the plot.
Kent told friends Harrison had agreed to pay him a total of £13,000.
The court heard father-of-two Harrison, of St Michael's Road, Madeley, Telford, concocted the plot after a woman he worked with at Malinsgate police station suddenly ended their 12-year affair in January.
Former Welsh Guard Harrison admitted soliciting murder and Kent, 34, of Chockleys Meadow, Leegomery, Telford, admitted fraud.
Mr Justice Henry Globe QC told Harrison: "Your actions have brought shame on your whole family."
Kent owned his own security firm but ran up debts of nearly £7,000 after ill health forced him to stop working. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison.
