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

Jun 18, 2026

By Sarah Ward

The Thompsons lived for many years at Pinewood Road, Northampton.

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.

The trial is being heard at Nottingham Crown Court.

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.

Asked in interview on August 13 whether he had ever been violent to his wife, he repeated:

“No, No, No.”

Then asked if he had been violent towards her on August 8 he said:

“No, none of that.”

He said he had restrained her by her arms for about 30 seconds on the night of her death when they were having consensual sex, because that was something she liked. Asked about an occasion she had been seen with black eyes, he said she had knocked her head on the toilet bowl when drunk.

He said his wife had been the one who had been violent in the relationship, recounting a time in around 2010, when she had hit him on the face after she had been drinking.

During the interview he said there had been no argument between him and his wife in the two days before her death. He said:

“No, everything was fine.
“No sort of hostility. There is no bad vibes. It was just what it was.”

He told the detectives he had filed for divorce in 2024 after coming across a message between Kim and one of their daughter’s basketball coaches. He said it had said, ‘I wish we had slept together.’

He told detectives:

“I just thought it was completely wrong.”

Asked if there was anything else that caused him to file for divorce.

“Oh that was enough”.

He said his wife did not want to accept the divorce and tried to convince him it was the wrong decision.

He said:

“It was just one of those things where someone wants something and someone does not want something. She did not want to. I did.”

He denied that he had had affairs and said the relationship he had with another woman at work in 2011 was at a time when they had separated due to an earlier affair his wife had had.

He denied being a jealous person and told the detective asking questions:

“[You] Just keep using that word. Jealous and upset. I’m not that kind of person. That is not me.”

Friends have told the trial the Thompsons had an unhappy, abusive marriage.

In one interview Thompson, who is a former bouncer and bailiff and was working as a warehouse worker at the time of his wife’s death, admitted to recording his wife in the home, but says he did so for his own security. He said his wife tried to ‘gaslight’ him and lied.

The court heard he was earning around £465 a week at the time of his wife’s death and had £2,000 in savings and around £15,000 on credit cards. The couple were going through a financial settlement which would have seen him keep the jointly owned family home - which was worth around £350,000 - plus a rental the pair jointly owned in Delapre. Kim had bought another property, which she had rented out and was due to move into.

As part of the financial split Thompson was to keep the properties and Kim was to receive £40,000, but in the weeks before her death had requested an additional £25,000.

Thompson told detectives he would have been able to pay the money.

In the September interviews he was given details by detectives of statements made by a series of friends and colleagues plus Kim’s sister. They shared what Kim, 43, had told them about her marriage being abusive and controlling.

Thompson called his wife a ‘pathological liar’.

At one point he said:

“Oh god - how many people did she say this to?”

He said:

“I am being called as a CC (coercive controller) when there is no evidence.”

He said there were no messages between the two that referenced abuse.

Asked in the September interview how he felt about her death he said:

“I feel the same as I did then, distraught. This is bad.

The detective asked:

“I know you had divorce proceedings, but did you still love her?
“Always, she is the mother of my children.”

On the night of her death he had been at home watching sexualised videos of his wife and was asked if watching the clips had made him ‘feel a certain way’ and wanting to have sex with Kim.

The detective asked: