Police inspector Darren McKie found guilty of wife's murder

A police inspector who strangled his wife and dumped her body in a lake has been found guilty of murder.

Darren McKie, 43, had admitted manslaughter moments before he was due to give evidence at his trial at Chester Crown Court, but a jury found him guilty of murder after two days of deliberation.

He will be sentence on Tuesday.

Mrs McKie, a detective constable, was found in Poynton Lake, Cheshire, on September 29 2017.

Pathologist Brian Rodgers said Mrs Mckie had been strangled, with force equivalent to a karate chop, for a period of a minute or more.

Friends described the couple, who had three children, as the "perfect family", but they were more than £115,000 in debt.

The jury was told the family spent £63,000 on renovations to their four-bedroom home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, in the months leading up to her death, and went on a £4,500 holiday to Portugal that summer.

The court heard how Mrs Mckie had discovered mounting debts on the morning of her murder when her passport and bank details were returned after being used in a failed application for a £54,000 loan in her name.

McKie, who was a serving officer with the Greater Manchester Police, left work after receiving a text message from his wife calling him a "liar".

Mrs McKie's red Mini was seen being driven away from the property shortly after. Surveyor Anthony Parker, who Mckie had called earlier to make an appointment, saw him walking back to the house.

The prosecution alleged Mrs McKie's body was in the boot of the car when it was driven a short distance away.

Later that day, parents saw him laughing as he picked his children up from school.

At 10.30pm McKie left the property and the Mini was picked up by CCTV and automatic number plate recognition cameras driving towards Mobberley, where police later found Mrs McKie's phone.

In the early hours of the morning McKie was spotted twice by officers on patrol in the area.

On the second occasion he was wearing no shoes and the court heard his trainers were later found in a wheelie bin with traces of his wife's blood.

In a statement, Mrs Mckie's parents Ray and Ellen Dodd said: "Justice has been served today. Our lives will never be the same again.

"There are no winners in this trial. We have lost our beautiful daughter and our grandchildren have lost their beloved mummy."