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Lover jailed for car boot murder | Lover jailed for car boot murder |
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Paula Poolton was stabbed seven times | |
A man has been jailed for at least 15 years for killing his lover and hiding her body in the boot of her car. | |
Paula Poolton, 40, of Titchfield, Fareham, was found near Swanwick rail station, Hampshire, on 28 October 2008, 11 days after she went missing. | |
Roger Kearney, 57, of Sarisbury Green, was convicted at Winchester Crown Court on 11 June. He was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 15 years. | |
The court heard the pair had been having an affair in the summer of 2008. | |
'False alibi' | |
They had worked together as stewards at Southampton Football Club but Mrs Poolton's husband and Kearney's partner were unaware of the affair. | |
The court was told how Kearney stabbed her to death when she started putting pressure on him to leave his partner and then fabricated an alibi to cover his tracks. | |
Roger Kearney also lied to police about his whereabouts | |
Prosecuting, Nicholas Haggan QC said that Mrs Poolton had told friends she wanted to leave her husband Richard but Kearney was in fact "tiring" of the relationship. | |
Mr Haggan said on the day she disappeared Mrs Poolton told her friend Carol Bertie she had been looking for a house to buy to move in with Kearney and was meeting him that night. | |
The jury was told she was prone to going on "benders" and her husband did not raise the alarm until a few days after she failed to return home on 17 October. | |
Police soon found out about the affair and questioned Kearney as a witness. | |
Mr Haggan said that significantly he referred to his lover in the past tense on several occasions. | |
Mrs Poolton used to be a steward at Southampton Football Club | |
The Royal Mail driver also lied about his whereabouts during a crucial hour after Mrs Poolton's Peugeot was last seen on CCTV. | |
Kearney said he had left for a night shift at 2200 BST for the 15-minute drive to work when CCTV footage showed he left home at 2131 BST. He also lied about the route. | |
When he got home after work he washed all his clothing including his fluorescent jacket, jurors were told. | |
The prosecution said there was no forensic evidence to link Kearney, or anybody else, to the murder and nobody saw the accused kill Mrs Poolton. |