Natalie Hemming death: Partner guilty of Milton Keynes murder

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-37874853

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A jealous man who killed his partner after finding out she had spent the night with her new lover has been found guilty of murder.

Paul Hemming beat mother-of-three Natalie Hemming, 31, to death in the lounge of their Milton Keynes home while their children slept upstairs.

Miss Hemming was found dead in woodland at Chandlers Cross, Hertfordshire, on 22 May, 21 days after she disappeared.

Hemming is due to be sentenced at Luton Crown Court at 14:00 GMT.

The noise of the attack woke the couple's six-year-old son, who went downstairs.

When he peeked 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 crept back to his bedroom.

Zoo trip

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.

He then took them to Whipsnade Zoo for a day out.

Hours earlier, while the children slept in their beds, Hemming had carried his partner's naked body out of the house, dumped it in the boot of his car and driven 30 miles from the family home in Alderney Avenue, Newton Leys, Milton Keynes, to Toms Wood, Chandlers Cross, south Hertfordshire.

There, he dragged her corpse by her feet into thick undergrowth.

He left her face down beneath the trees, where she was found three weeks later by a man who had been mowing a meadow nearby.

Heavy ornament

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

He claimed her death was caused when he threw a heavy ornament at her that was standing by the TV set.

He said he had not 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 was not breathing and he knew she was dead.

But Simon Russell-Flint QC, for the prosecution, said: "This is murder. A calculated, murderous attack because of jealousy and rage."