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Husband killed wife after she found out about affairs court hears

By Matthew Hobbs

9:25am Friday 3rd September 2010

MICHAEL Roberts, accused of murdering his wife just five months after marrying her, did so after she found out he was seeing another woman, Liverpool Crown Court heard on Thursday.

According to David Steer, prosecuting, Roberts had cheated on wife Vicky throughout their relationship. Mr Steer said that Roberts, who met Vicky when they worked at the Warrington branch of IKEA together, began cheating on her during their engagement.

After switching jobs to assistant manager at Phones 4 U, the defendant began seeing work colleague Kerrie Hall in November 2009, less than year after he became engaged.

The court heard that this relationship was 'purely a sexual one' and continued past Robert's wedding to Vicky on June 21 2009.

That affair ended in September 2009, according to Mr Steer, but by October the defendant, who denies murdering his wife, had began pursuing another colleague, Karen Wilson.

Vicky became suspicious that Roberts was having an affair, according to the prosecution, and began checking her husband's Facebook account. Friends noticed she was unhappy.

The court heard that Roberts continued to see Ms Wilson, who ended a relationship to be with him, past his wife's death.

He admitted the affair to Vicky, but claimed it was 'not sexual'. She, however, remained unsure after confronting Roberts, but decided to work on the marriage.

After the alleged murder happened on November 29, Roberts sent a text message to Ms Wilson that read 'good night beautiful, sweet dreams'.

He also rang her on four occasions that evening. Mr Steer said of Vicky and Roberts: "To many people they appeared to the perfect couple but sadly the reality was altogether different."

The trial continues.

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