A JURY at Worcester Crown Court has been told to weigh up the prosecution case against a man accused of killing his wife with the fact that they had never had a crossed word in all their time together.

The Hon Mr Justice Hickinbottom sent the jury out to consider its verdict in the trial of Alan Evans, who denies murdering his wife, Louise, at their Kidderminster home in July last year.

He is alleged to have punched his wife at least four times in the face and knocked her downstairs at their home in Stoney Lane, Kidderminster, on the night of July 9 last year.

Medical evidence from two post mortems suggested she had injuries which could only have been caused by direct blows to her face rather than a fall and he was arrested in February this year.

The prosecution alleges Evans, a 35-year-old welder, who worked at Egbert H Taylor in Droitwich, killed his 32-year-old wife Louise because she had discovered the truth about an affair he had been having and he feared she was going to take their three daughters and leave him.

The jury has been told he then put a vacuum cleaner on the landing and a skipping rope at the foot of the stairs to give the impression she had tripped and fallen.

Justice Hickinbottom said there were no eyewitnesses in the house other than the defendant and no direct evidence.

The prosecution case, he said, was based on medical and circumstantial evidence, which could also be very powerful, with the affair he had been having with his lover Amanda Chadwick as a motive.

Evans also had no explanation for the positions of the vacuum cleaner and the skipping rope.

Against this, the judge said, was the evidence that they were a "devoted couple" and there was no suggestion he had ever raised his hands to her during nearly 18 years together.

"They were an ideal couple and a happy family unit," he said.

"All of this goes against him assaulting her in July."

The defence has suggested the fall could have caused imperceptible damage to the brain during the fall which caused her to stop breathing.