Northampton murder trial: Suspect accused wife of being 'pathological liar'
The murder trial at Nottingham Crown Court has been hearing the recorded police interviews with Michael Thompson, who is accused of killing his wife
By Sarah Ward
A Northampton man accused of killing his estranged wife said in police interviews he had never been violent to her and called her a ‘pathological liar’.
Since Tuesday (June 16) the jury in the Kimberley Thompson murder trial has heard a series of recorded police interviews with her husband Michael, that took place in the days and month after her death, after he was arrested twice on suspicion of her murder.
Thompson, 56, is accused by the prosecution of having raped and killed his wife sometime in the early hours of August 9 last year at their home in Pinewood Road, Northampton and then staging a fake suicide to cover up his crimes. He denies all charges.
On Monday the first taped interview carried out by major crime detectives on August 12 last year was played to the jury at Nottingham Crown Court and during Tuesday and Wednesday the trial heard six more interviews. Three were carried out in August before he was released without charge and from mid September when he was rearrested.
The transcripts of the interviews, which took place in Northampton and Kettering, were read to the jury by prosecutor Charlene Sumnall and detective Alex Steele.
Thompson denied ever being violent to his wife, who he had been married to since 2006. At the time of her death the pair were separated and going through the final stages of divorce, although still living together in the family home.