AN AIRLINE pilot smashed his estranged wife with a saucepan, then punched, kicked and stamped her to death in a rage because she refused to drop the asking price on their former village home.
Despite the brutality of the killing, Andrew McIntosh, a pilot with the Tui holiday company, has pleaded not guilty to his wife Patricia’s murder at her home in Knightcote near Gaydon.
The jury at Warwick Crown Court heard the defence case was that 54-year-old Mr McIntosh, who was living in a cottage at Woolscott Manor near Rugby, was suffering from diminished responsibility.
Prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith said the McIntoshs, who had both been married before, had married in 2012, but separated in June last year, and divorce proceedings had started.
Their home, Grass Yard in Knightcote, where Patricia had continued living after Mr McIntosh moved out, was put up for sale.
But by November there had been little or no interest from buyers and Mr McIntosh wanted to drop the sale price but 56-year-old Patricia, who had a son from her previous marriage, did not.
On November 15 she was again asked to drop the price, and declined, which angered the defendant.
He was earning more than £100,000 a year, but said he was under financial pressure and complained about Patricia having ‘expensive tastes’ – although Mr Grieves-Smith observed he had chosen to buy and drive a Maserati and a Range Rover.
Despite being on standby that day, the defendant was drinking during the afternoon before deciding to drive to Knightcote to talk to Patricia, who worked as a beautician, without any warning.
Mr Grieves-Smith said: “He was to tell the police that he asked her to change her mind. She declined to do so, and told him to leave.
“He then grabbed her and attacked her. To use his terms, ‘I lost control.’”
The jury was told he ‘smashed’ her with a saucepan containing water and peas, before also attacking her with his fists and feet, kicking her and stamping on her.
Mr Grieves-Smith added: “She died on her kitchen floor. The defendant did nothing to help her after he had finished the attack. He didn’t try to give her first aid, or call 999, or anything.
Mr McIntosh drove home to Woolscott where he drank a bottle of wine and contacted friends in Norfolk, admitting what he had done.
The defendant then drove to the Green Man pub in Dunchurch where he spoke to a friend who worked for the police, and told him he had ‘punched her and kicked her and stamped on her head’, before driving into Rugby, where he was stopped by police and arrested.
Asked by his barrister Rachel Brand QC how he felt as he left the house following Patricia’s death, Mr McIntosh said: “Just numb, shock.”
And asked to expand on what he meant when he told police ‘I lost control’, he said: “I just remember having an overwhelming feeling of emotion, and I was unaware until it was too late that I had lost control.”
The jury also heard Mr McIntosh had suffered a heart attack while walking the dog in 2012, and had to undergo two operations, and was off work for 16 months.
The following year he had attempted suicide by taking an overdose of co-codamol, and the jury also heard he had self-harmed as a teenager, and was also contemplating suicide shortly before his wife’s death.
That led to him being signed off work and receiving counselling before being found fit to return to duty in September.
The trial continues.
