Shropshire funeral director told police he had never laid a finger on wife

Detectives believe John Taylor attacked Alethea, his wife and partner of 20 years, in the bedroom they shared in Mortimer Drive, Orleton, near Ludlow, before disposing of her body, the court has heard.

The 63-year-old retired primary school teacher was reported missing by Taylor on January 19 last year and has not been seen since.

Bloodstains which forensic scientists matched to Mrs Taylor were found in the bedroom, the court has been told.

But Taylor, 61, who denies a charge of murder, told police during interview he had not attacked her and did not know where she was.

Transcripts from the police interviews with the father-of-two, cut down to 98 pages from more than 1,000, were read out by prosecuting counsel Mr Michael Burrows during the trial at Worcester Crown Court yesterday.

After being arrested on suspicion of Mrs Taylor's murder in June last year, police asked Taylor: "Did you attack her?"

He replied: "I have never, ever, ever laid a finger on her. I am not that sort of person."

The trial had earlier heard Taylor claimed his wife had suffered a nosebleed as an explanation for the presence of blood in the bedroom.

He told police she had been acting strangely in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.

The court heard during the interviews Taylor claimed he had found his wife on three separate occasions wandering the streets, seemingly not knowing where she was.

He said the couple had 'never had a bad word' during 20 years together but admitted his wife had 'cursed' him the night before she disappeared.

"It was a lot of jibberish what she was saying, it had never happened before and it went on for a couple of minutes."

The court had earlier heard that Taylor had a lover, Alison Dearden, from the nearby village of Brimfield, with whom he had started an affair six months before his wife disappeared.

The trial continues.