Milton Keynes man handed life sentence for murdering partner while children slept upstairs

Video report by ITV News Anglia's Liz Summers

A man's been handed a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years for murdering his partner at their Milton Keynes home while their children slept upstairs.

Paul Hemming violently beat mother-of-three Natalie in the lounge of their home on 1 May, while their children slept upstairs.

Natalie, who was 31, suffered a fractured skull and broken arm in the savage attack as she tried to ward off blow after blow.

The noise of the attack woke their six year old son who slipped downstairs. After peeking through a gap in the door, he saw his mother's body, which by then his father had wrapped in a blanket.

Not realising she had been killed and fearing he would be told off for being up, he then crept back to his bedroom.

When the youngster and his two sisters got up the next morning, their father claimed their mother had left the house while they were asleep.

Hemming then took the children to Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire for a day out.

While the children were still asleep, Hemming had carried their mother's naked body out of the house, dumped it in the boot of his car and then drove a wooded area he knew 30 miles away in Hertfordshire.

There, he dragged her corpse by her feet into thick undergrowth and left her face down beneath the trees in Chandlers Cross, near Rickmansworth.

Her badly decomposed remains were found in the wood three weeks later by a man who had been mowing a meadow nearby.

Hemming was today convicted of murder following a two week trial at Luton Crown Court.

He had earlier admitted her manslaughter, claiming he never meant to kill her or cause her serious bodily harm.

During his trial, Hemming had claimed Natalie's death had been caused when he threw a heavy ornament at her that was standing by the TV set.

He said that as they "grappled" with one another during an argument over her cheating, he'd hurled a £1000 imitation Faberge egg at her which was made of Jade, in an effort to stop her leaving the house with their children.

He said he hadn't aimed it at her head, but said it struck her causing her to fall onto a rug by their sofa.

Hemming said by the time he got to her she wasn't breathing and he knew she was dead.

The prosecution said his account was a lie and Hemming had planned killing her as a "punishment for her infidelity."

Prosecutor Simon Russell Flint QC said Natalie had been killed by Hemming "in a fit of rage and jealousy" when he learnt she had been unfaithful to him and was planning to leave him and take the children with her."

The jury was told Natalie hadn't suffered a single strike from the thrown ornament, but repeated blows with a weapon during which she had raised her arm in an effort to protect herself.

Pathologist Dr Olaf Biedrzycki said it was impossible to say what caused her death because of the advanced state of decomposition of her body when it was discovered in the woods.

However, he said he discovered she had suffered a depressed skull fracture by her right temple and the ulna bone in her left forearm had been broken.

He described the fractures as "significant" injuries and, in addition, he found evidence of bruising to both her arms.Dr Biedrzycki said there was also some evidence that she had suffered possible fractures to her larynx.