Ex-cop threatened to kill wife before she was found dead at home, trial hears
A retired police officer accused of the manslaughter of his wife had threatened to kill her before she was found dead with multiple injuries at their home, a court heard.
Alan Claxton, 74, is accused of causing his wife Wendy, 70, to topple down the stairs with a 'massive force' usually associated with a fall from a building or being in a car crash, the jury at Newcastle crown court was told. They watched bodycam footage of a visit by Northumbria Police - the force which both the Claxtons served as officers - after Wendy made an emergency call due to her husband's violence and threats.
In the 16-minute video shown to the jury, Wendy told police: "He is really threatening and threatens to kill me. But I really don't want to make a complaint about it because he is mentally ill." She informed a call handler that there was a 'history of domestic violence'.
She told officers how her husband drank 'four cans of Stella by 11.30am' before drinking eight pints of lager at a pub and returning to their home in Dunston, Gateshead, on May 8, 2019. Neighbours found her dead in the property four months later on Septeber 30, having suffered 19 separate fractures to her ribs, a broken spine and a cut to her aorta which resulted in 1.6 litres of blood leaking into her chest cavity, the jury heard.
In the bodycam footage, she told police: "He is going off it. He is not coping, he is paranoid and going absolutely Ragee, pulling me all over the house." Her husband was arrested on suspicion of assault after he pulled her by the hair and ear, causing injuries to her head, the court heard.
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She added: "My brother in Canada died and he left me a considerable amount of money. My husband is obsessed because he thinks I am going to leave it to my nephews. All he is doing is spending it on drink. He is going bananas."
Claxton, 74, claimed his wife of 45 years fell down the stairs and got into bed where he found her dead. He did not call an ambulance and she had been dead 'for hours' by the time her body was found by concerned neighbours, the court heard.
A Home Office expert said that Mrs Claxton's injuries would have been 'excruciatingly painful' for her and she would have lost consciousness 'very rapidly'.
Prof Nigel Cooper, the pathologist who carried out the post mortem on Mrs Claxton, said the rib fractures and ruptured aorta were consistent with "people who jump out of buildings or are in car crashes". She died from the bleeding into her chest cavity, he added.
Expert witness Peter Goode, a consultant in emergency medicine at Newcastle NHS Trust, told the jury that she would have had difficulty 'doing anything', including moving her arms, after the injuries.
Neighbours found Mr Claxton so drunk when his wife's body was discovered that he had to be admitted to intensive care the day after he was arrested on suspicion of her murder. When interviewed by police, Claxton said it "never entered my head to ring for an ambulance for some reason". He said he was shocked and "thought 'what am I going to do'?".
Claxton told officers they had been married for 45 years and said Mrs Claxton had been a police officer in North Shields, Whickham and Blaydon and became a custody sergeant in the West End of Newcastle. He said he was also a sergeant and got promoted to acting inspector.
Claxton, of Hillside, Gateshead, denies manslaughter and the trial continues.
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