This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-28166486
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 0 | Version 1 |
---|---|
Christopher Parry guilty of murdering wife Caroline Parry | Christopher Parry guilty of murdering wife Caroline Parry |
(35 minutes later) | |
A man murdered his wife by shooting her in the back because he could not accept she had left him. | |
Caroline Parry was shot twice at close range by her "controlling and dominant" husband near her home in Newport last August. | |
She left 49-year-old Christopher Parry after years of unhappiness, so he shot her before turning the gun on himself. | |
He admitted manslaughter at Newport Crown Court but denied murder claiming he only meant to shoot himself. | |
But the court heard the shooting was a "carefully planned scheme" by a man "not prepared to let go". | |
Mrs Parry was gunned down by her estranged husband after leaving the home of her new partner. | |
She had fled her husband of 27 years after meeting another man while walking her dog. | |
Gary Bidmead met her after he saw her crying and asked if she was okay. The pair and struck up a friendship which gradually blossomed into something more. They moved in together six months later, a development her estranged husband could not accept. | |
The jury heard Parry had kept his wife "under surveillance" in the months leading up to the shooting, and phoned her persistently. | |
On the morning he killed her Parry had been waiting for his wife in Seabreeze Avenue, and when he saw her got a semi-automatic shotgun from the boot of his car. | |
He shot her twice in the back at close range before turning the gun himself in a suicide attempt which failed, but resulted in substantial head injuries. | |
Parry told a psychiatrist his "intention was to kill himself in front of his wife to make her realise the torment she had put him through", the court heard. | |
But the reality was that during her marriage she had been controlled by her husband to such an extent that she was only allowed to stay with her mother once a month and she had to be in by 7pm. | |
Prosecutor Michael Mather-Lees QC said: "Such was the state of the marriage she left and went to live with her mother, telling her husband she would never go back to him. | |
"But he could not accept the fact that his wife had left him after years of unhappiness." | "But he could not accept the fact that his wife had left him after years of unhappiness." |
Parry, who had a shotgun licence and kept three firearms at his Cwmbran home, was a driver for the Celtic Manor Resort. The court heard he had a history of mental illness and depression dating back over 10 years. | |
After being discharged from hospital two months after the shooting, Parry was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. | After being discharged from hospital two months after the shooting, Parry was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. |
A jury delivered a majority verdict of 10-1 after deliberating since Friday. | |
Parry was not present in the dock for the verdict with the judge's permission. He will be sentenced at a later date. |