Wife murderer jailed for life

Police have described Alan Evans as a 'manipulative character' after being found guilty of killing his wife.

Detective Inspector Dean Jones, West Mercia Police, said that Evans has paid a heavy price for his crime.

A husband from Worcestershire has been sentenced for at least 17 years behind bars after being found guilty of killing his wife and then trying to make it look like a tragic accident.

The court heard how Alan Evans threw his wife Louise down a staircase and smothered her after she found out about his affair. A judge described the murder as 'a callous and deliberate killing'.

Louise's mother, Judy Bollen, described outside court how it is "heartbreaking" taking her grandchildren to visit their mothers grave.

Cheating husband Alan Evans has been jailed for life for the murder of his wife Louise, who was found dead at the bottom of the stairs of their Kidderminster home.

He attacked her and threw her down the stairs after an argument broke out about his affair with teaching assistant Amanda Chadwick.

Evans, aged 35, will have to serve at least 17 years for killing the 32-year-old mother of his three children, as a High Court Judge labelled it a "callous and deliberate" murder.

He was unanimously convicted of murder at Worcester Crown Court today after a month-long trial.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Hickinbottom condemned the welder for using a skipping rope and a vacuum cleaner as props in a "grotesque" attempt to pass the killing off as an accident.

Medical evidence helped to prove to jurors that Alan Evans was guilty of murdering his wife Louise.

During the trial, Worcester Crown Court heard that she suffered bruising to her face and fractures to the inside of her eye socket, which a Home Office pathologist said was most likely to have been caused by a punch or kick to the face.

Neighbours also gave evidence they heard Mrs Evans, who was 32, scream earlier that evening before heavy footsteps from the house in Stoney Lane, Kidderminster. A short while later, they said they were woken by the sound of Alan Evans sobbing.

Mobile phone records showed Evans had exchanged more than 12,000 text messages with his mistress, Amanda Chadwick, during their four-month affair.

He called it off a week before Mrs Evans died - but, just hours before she was found dead at the bottom of the stairs at their home, he bought a "secret" SIM card which he used to send his lover a blank message.

A father-of-three has been found guilty of murdering his wife and childhood sweetheart at their home in Kidderminster.

After several hours of deliberations, the jury at Worcester Crown Court this morning returned a guilty verdict against 35-year-old Alan Evans.

His wife, 32-year-old Louise, was found dead at the bottom of their house in Stoney Lane, Kidderminster, in July last year.

She had been dead for around two hours before Evans called the ambulance.

He claimed he had been asleep and had not heard her fall - but the jury agreed with prosecutors' allegations that he attacked her and pushed her down the stairs.

He had been having an affair with local teaching assistant Amanda Chadwick, which finished a week before Louise's death.

Their relationship resumed just three months after she died.

The jury in the case of a father-of-three accused of murdering his wife at their Kidderminster home will retire today to consider its verdict.

Alan Evans, aged 35, is charged with killing his 32-year-old wife Louise, who was found dead at the bottom of the stairs of their home in Stoney Lane in July last year.

Prosecutors allege he killed his wife after she discovered evidence of his affair with teaching assistant Amanda Chadwick, who worked at St Mary's C of E Primary School where his three young daughters were pupils.

High Court Judge Mr Justice Hickinbottom will finish outlining a summary of the evidence in the case this morning, before sending the jury out.