Peter Morgan, 54, strangled burlesque dancer Georgina Symonds, 25, fearing she was planning to release photos of him having sex with prostitutes to his wife and two daughters.
Giving evidence yesterday, the multi-millionaire businessman told how Miss Symonds nicknamed one of her alleged victims ‘Lovely Alan’ and ‘fleeced’ him of his entire £70,000 life savings. She also bragged about how she ‘profited’ from another client she called ‘Nice John’, Newport Crown Court heard. Morgan, who was paying her up to £10,000 a month to be his exclusive escort, was dubbed ‘Rich Pete’.
The court was told Miss Symonds, from Llanmartin, near Newport, South Wales, also wanted to blackmail another client into paying her £2,000 a month. The man’s identity was withheld from the court – but details of the blackmail threat were given to the jury and judge.
Asked about the material Miss Symonds had, Morgan said: ‘I don’t think there were photos. But she knew a lot of details about him.’ Morgan also said Miss Symonds had ‘fleeced’ an ‘old guy’ out of his life savings, adding: ‘He was down as Lovely Alan in her phone’.
Miss Symonds, a mother of one, had almost £120,000 in her bank account when she was strangled to death in January. The court previously heard that Miss Symonds had explicit photos and films on her phone which she believed were ‘enough to ruin’ Morgan.
They included a video of Miss Symonds and another escort romping on a farm machinery.
There was also a photograph of Morgan in his marital bed, having sex with Miss Symonds and a call girl named Lauren.
Recounting the hours before the alleged murder, Morgan said he uncovered the blackmail plot after tapping her phone. Morgan said: ‘I heard her say if she had my money she would be on a yacht in the south of France. She said that she thought she would get the bungalow off me in the summer time and then she would dump me.
‘I can remember her saying she would “do me over” and I just assumed it was financially.’
He also overheard her boasting about gifts he was going to buy her, including a horse and a piano. Morgan told the court: ‘I just couldn’t believe it. I was numb. Devastated. I thought the “do me over” was financially, meaning blackmail. There were photos of me and her, me with her and other girls and me and other girls. The ones I was worried about were sexually explicit.’
After hearing the threat, Morgan made a list on his phone including ‘glove, snip, handle, tape, special k, starter and adaptor’ – items supposedly used in the alleged murder.He said: ‘I didn’t want to harm her... I thought she’d be afraid and see sense.’
Morgan recounted in chilling detail how he then went to the bungalow with one wrist wrapped by loops of twine which he used to throttle Miss Symonds.
He said: ‘I pulled it tight and released it and she said, “What are you doing?”. I told her I knew what she was up to but I am not sure if I said anything else.
‘I did it again but for a bit longer. After the second time she said: “You’re going to pay for this”. That’s when I killed her.’
After the killing, Morgan told how he went shopping, visited the bank and arranged a skiing trip to ‘get back in my comfort zone’. But ‘panic mode set in’ when her mother Deborah called to say Miss Symonds had not picked up her daughter from school.
Morgan of Llanellen, near Abergavenny, denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, saying he had Asperger’s syndrome. The trial continues.