SMH: Husband Fakes Wife Suicide Then Admits To Strangling Her

(Photo by Giles Clarke/Getty Images)

64-year old Derek Potter faces life in prison after he tried to hide the fact that he killed his wife by claiming that she committed suicide.

Metro News reports:

A court heard police did not at first treat Mrs Potters’ death as suspicious – and her body was released to a funeral director. But Potter confessed to the killing to a woman in his local pub just one week before Mrs Potter, 66, was due to be cremated. He told fellow builder Natalia Mikhailoea-Kisselevskaia, 32, what he had done before asking her to move in with him. Natalia said: ‘We were still on our first pints when he said: “I have got to tell you something”. He said: “I love my wife very much but she was doing my head in so I strangled her”.

Mrs Potter’s body was found at her home in Mumbles, Swansea, South Wales, on April 7. A post mortem examination revealed Mrs Potter had a number of injuries including internal injuries, bruising and ‘other marks’ on her body. Pathologists could also determine a difference in signs of ‘manual strangulation’ and hanging.

Potter will be sentenced on Thursday morning.