London - A former City trader killed his wife by dousing her in white spirit (turpentine) and setting her alight after she discovered his extramarital affair was still ongoing, a court heard.
Darren Byrne, 40, is accused of murdering stockbroker Maria, 35, in the kitchen of their home in Theydon Bois, Essex.
It is alleged that Mrs Byrne found a text between her husband and his London osteopath revealing their continuing relationship, and that he killed her after an argument escalated.
The court heard Mrs Byrne confronted her husband as he had promised that he would stop seeing Deborah Houlihan, who was also married.
It is alleged Byrne then knocked Mrs Byrne out and poured white spirit over her before setting her alight and then turning on the gas stove in a bid to destroy the evidence by torching his house.
After this failed he moved her ‘burnt and charred body’ to make her death look like a cooking accident, and called the emergency services.
Byrne told police he been walking the dog while his wife made him a bacon sandwich and returned home to find her lying on the floor. Chelmsford Crown Court heard on Tuesday that an investigation of the mother-of-two’s body found she had been covered in accelerant, which Byrne had traces of on his trainers.
The couple had met in the City while they both worked at banks and fell in love before having two children.
Prosecutor Andrew Jackson told the jury of eight women and four men that they were a happy family unit until Mrs Byrne discovered her husband’s infidelity with Houlihan. She threw him out but relented when he promised to change his ways, he said.
Jackson said that Mr Byrne nevertheless continued the affair, using an unregistered pay-as-you-go mobile phone to arrange liaisons with his lover.
He added: ‘At one minute to midday on the morning of Saturday February 13 this year, no more than an hour before the time we say he slayed his wife, he sent a text message to the woman with whom he was having an affair.’
Jackson described the confrontation that followed as ‘the catalyst for the murder’.
But Houlihan denied the affair was ongoing, telling the court she and Byrne only had sex five times in total from when their affair started in June 2015 and not at all in 2016.
Byrne denies murder and arson. The trial continues.
Daily Mail