Undertaker John Taylor guilty of murdering wife

John Taylor, aged 61, killed his wife at their home in Mortimer Drive, Orleton, near Tenbury Wells, in January last year and hid her body so that it has not been found.

“Only you know what became of her,” High Court judge, the Hon Mr Justice Flaux, told him at Worcester Crown Court.

He said Taylor clearly saw his 63-year-old wife Alethea, a former Black Country primary school teacher, as an “obstacle to happiness” with his lover, 53-year-old Alison Dearden.

Alethea had discovered the affair and it had become apparent in earlier incidents that she was miserable over his “duplicity” and he feared she would reveal it.

The judge said there was a “dark and violent” side to Taylor’s personality which perhaps only Alethea knew.

On the night of January 18 to January 19 last year his “anger and frustration boiled over,” the judge said.

Taylor either attacked her in the bedroom where her blood was found or elsewhere in the bungalow and took her to the bedroom where he possibly smothered her with a pillow. He then drove her body away in his BMW under the cover of darkness.

Taylor had lived all his life in rural Herefordshire and was well able to find an isolated place to hide the body which has not been found despite searches by villagers and the police.

The concealment of the body was a serious aggravating feature and had been taken into consideration for adding to the minimum starting point of 15 years jail.

“You have shown no remorse because you continue to deny you murdered her,” the judge told Taylor.

He said that the killing was not pre-meditated and he had taken into account Taylor’s previous good character and his age.

Ignatius Hughes, defending, said Taylor was in ill health which though not serious put him at risk of early death.

The judge said he had taken Taylor’s age into account with a lower term than if he had been a younger man. He was sentenced to 17 years, minus the 290 days he has spent in custody on remand.