Former Royal Marine commando ‘strangled his wife when she discovered his affair with his son’s partner’
Stephen Searle, 64, had a two-month fling with Anastasia Pomiateeva, 39, after pestering her for sex
A FORMER Royal Marine commando strangled his wife when she discovered his affair with his son’s partner, a court heard.
Stephen Searle, 64, had a two-month fling with Anastasia Pomiateeva, 39, after pestering her for sex.
She was mum to his grandchildren and had been with son Garry for eight years. Searle’s suspicious wife Anne, 62, discovered messages and explicit pictures between the pair — who had worked together at a bowling alley — last June.
Anastasia immediately ended the relationship and confessed to Garry, who afterwards had barely any contact with his dad.
The affair put immense strain on the Searles’ 45-year marriage, the jury heard.
After a row, it was claimed Searle strangled Anne with a “choke-hold” learned in the military. Andrew Jackson, prosecuting, said this involved putting an arm around the throat.
Searle is said to have called police on December 30 and told them he had suffocated his wife.
In a statement, he said she tried to stab him with a steak knife.
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Prosecutors told Ipswich crown court: “This alleged murder had its roots firmly in the discovery by Mrs Searle that the defendant had been having an affair with her daughter-in-law.”
Searle, a Ukip councillor in his home town of Stowmarket, Suffolk, from 2013 to 2017, denies murder, claiming he acted in self-defence. The trial continues.