Dorset police officer who killed partner has sentence increased

Brehmer was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison in October for Manslaughter. Credit: PA/Dorset Police

A former Dorset Police constable Timothy Brehmer who killed his long-term partner after she revealed their affair to his wife has had his prison sentence increased by the highest appeal court in the country.

Today his sentence for her manslaughter has now been increased to 13 and a half years by the Court of Appeal. Brehmer was cleared of murder by a jury following a trial at Salisbury Crown Court. He had previously admitted Claire Parry's manslaughter.

Brehmer, then 41, was jailed for 10-and-a-half years in October for manslaughter. His sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General's Office under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

Nurse Claire Parry. Credit: Dorset Police

The Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said that the sentencing judge, Mr Justice Jacobs, "gave too little weight to the aggravating factors he has identified".

Lord Burnett said: "We quash the sentence of 10 and a half years imprisonment and substitute a sentence of 13 and a half years imprisonment."

The Court of Appeal also rejected a bid by Brehmer to have his sentence reduced.

Timothy Brehmer’s Citroen car, in which Claire Parry died Credit: Dorset Police/PA

Former Dorset Police constable Timothy Brehmer killed mother-of-two Claire Parry after she sent a text message from his phone to his wife saying: "I am cheating on you."

Claire Parry died during the incident in his car in the car park of the Horns Inn in West Parley, Dorset, on the ninth of May last year.

Brehmer was sentenced to manslaughter on the basis that he "lost control".