Dorset Police officer Timothy Brehmer jailed for manslaughter of lover Claire Parry
A police officer has been jailed for more than 10 years for the manslaughter of his long-term lover after she revealed their affair to his wife.
Dorset Police officer Timothy Brehmer, who was cleared of murder, was sentenced to 10 years and six months in jail for killing nurse Claire Parry in a pub car park.
While sentencing Mr Brehmer at Salisbury Crown Court, Mr Justice Jacobs said the 41-year-old would serve two-thirds of his sentence in prison before he could apply for parole.
"This is a case where I should sentence you on the basis you lost your self-control following the sending of the text message to your wife where the affair was revealed, rather than on the basis that you had no intention to kill or cause really serious harm," the judge said.
"I am sure that you did deliberately take Claire Parry by the neck applying significant force with your forearm or the crook of your elbow for a period of time while she struggled against you, thereby causing the severe neck injuries which the pathologist described.
"The evidence from the pathologist was that those injuries which she described as ‘severe’ on a scale of mild, moderate or severe resulted from the application of significant force to the neck for a period of a minimum 10 to 30 seconds and possibly longer.
"She said it was difficult to envisage a situation where a struggle in the car imparted the necessary degree of force or could explain the extent and severity of the neck injuries."
Mr Justice Jacobs said: "You were a trained and experienced police officer and your character witnesses described how you would help others.
"Yet you did nothing to try to help Claire Parry. You did not ask her how she was. That was because you knew how she was."
He added: "You could not possibly thought, as you said in your police interview, that she was simply taking a breath.
"You must have known that her body had gone limp after your assault on her. Before you walked to the car park entrance you must have seen how she was – hanging half out of the car.
"It must have been obvious to you as a trained police officer with extensive experience of casualties in traffic accidents that she was not breathing.
"In evidence you said you did not realise she was poorly. I consider that you appreciated that she was much worse than that."
In a statement released after the sentencing of Timothy Brehmer, Andrew Parry, the husband of Claire Parry, said: "I am incredibly disappointed at the verdict of this trial. I believe Brehmer’s account of that day to be inconsistent and untruthful.
"As the murder trial heard, he conducted a factory reset on his mobile telephone which has hindered the police investigation and leaves us with an incomplete picture of events on that day.
"I feel we will never truly know exactly what happened."
He added: "What we do know is that Brehmer used such force against Claire that she suffered fractures to her neck, lost consciousness, went into cardiac arrest and eventually died.
"Having used that amount of force, he has failed to render any assistance to her which could have saved her life. As a trained police officer, he would have had the ability to do this.
"Instead, he chose to tell lies from the moment he was discovered by witnesses, stating that Claire had stabbed him.
"He has since admitted that this was a lie and that he inflicted those injuries on himself.
"This lie led to a delay in Claire receiving what could have been lifesaving treatment, a fact that remains incredibly distressing."