A jealous wife who killed her husband discovered his affairs by counting his Viagra tablets, a court heard on Thursday.
Sally Challen, 57, made a note in her diary every time she suspected her wealthy husband Richard of betraying her.
She also kept records of his receipts and emails and wrote about the internet searches she carried out on the women she thought he was seeing.
In one entry she wrote “packet V in suit jacket” after finding blue Viagra tablets in his pocket, the jury heard.
Suspecting he had used them with another woman the night before, she wrote:”Liar, liar, pants on fire”.
The mother-of-two tried to keep count of the tablets but said her husband “moved them places”.
In another diary entry she described how she watched the Ferrari fanatic go into a brothel called Pandora’s Box in Surbiton, Surrey.
Mrs Challen, an officer manager for the Police Federation, discovered he was using prostitutes after finding the telephone number for the brothel in his phone records, it was said.
Giving evidence at her murder trial at Guildford Crown Court, Surrey, she said: “I sat in the car park and I saw him go in the back [of the brothel]. I couldn’t believe he was going there.”
Mr Challen, 61, initially denied he had slept with prostitutes when he was confronted by his wife at their £1million (about R11 million), four-bedroom detached home in Claygate, Surrey. But after being challenged by his eldest son over his behaviour he admitted paying for sex, it was said.
In another diary entry, Mrs Challen described her despair at her husband’s behaviour toward younger women on a trip to Australia and Thailand.
“I’ve decided, everyone agrees with me, he’s a ladies’ man,” she wrote. “I’m sick and tired of his behaviour. Every time he sees a young woman he leers.”
Mrs Challen tried to salvage the marriage before she left him in the early autumn of 2009.
They tried to get back together the following year. But as the reconciliation developed, Mrs Challen suspected her husband was having an affair with boat owner Sue Wilce. She confronted him when she found he was planning a trip with her.
Mr Challen, the former boss of a car dealership, fobbed his wife off by saying: “Don’t question me, don’t question me”. Incensed, she took a hammer from her handbag and crept up behind him as he ate lunch at the kitchen table on August 14 last year.
She hit him more than 20 times over the head.
The following day she drove 70 miles to Beachy Head in East Sussex where she threatened to jump off a 500ft (152m) cliff. She was arrested after a police negotiator talked her away from the edge.
Mrs Challen admits killing her husband but denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The trial continues.
* The jealous wife’s diary of despair
August 13, 2004: Asked him for a kiss. He said he didn’t want to be forced to do something he didn’t want to do.
August 16: Packet V [Viagra] in suit jacket. Liar, liar, pants on fire.
October 6: Found receipt for Dominion Theatre for drinks on June 25 when he said he was at the Nurburgring.
November 11: Lost three stone in stress.
November 12: Finding London Eye tickets when he was in Germany. He doesn’t know how they got there. Said he wouldn’t pay for my ticket to Australia if I didn’t stop asking. Bastard.
November 30: Nothing changed. He is still the same. I’m sick of being treated this way. I have my own life too. This isn’t the one I want.
December 11, 2006: I saw him going into Pandora’s [brothel] in Surbiton.
February 15, 2008: Finding it hard to function.
August 6, 2009: A woman called. - Daily Mail