A pig farmer accused of killing his wife and dumping her body in a septic tank has been found guilty of her murder. David Venables, 89, murdered his wife Brenda, 48, so that he could run away with his secret lover.
A jury of five men and seven women took three days to return a guilty verdict following a trial held at Worcester Crown Court. Venables, who arrived at court carrying both a sports bag and briefcase, showed no emotion when the verdict was read out.
Jurors during the trial heard details of Venables' "on-off" 14-year-long affair with now dead mother-of-three Lorraine Styles, including how he visited his mistress to have sex just mere days after his wife vanished, The Mirror reports.
Brenda's remains lay hidden for 37 years in an underground cesspit in the grounds of their marital home on Quaking House Farm, in Kempsey, and were discovered in 2019.
It was claimed that he "got away with murder" for nearly 40 years until Brenda's skull was found in the 5ft 6ins deep cesspit when it was being emptied.
Venables has been on trial at Worcester Crown Court charged with murdering Brenda in May 1982. The court heard how he told police he had cleaned the septic tank out on several occasions before his wife's remains were found by contractors.
In transcripts of police interviews which were read out in court, Venables asked officers: "What evidence have you got?
"These bones, are you sure it's my wife?"
Venables was told by the officer that enquiries were ongoing and replied "I have no knowledge that there was anything in there at all."
He said that if he had known there was anything like that in the tank, he would have "sold the farm".
"It would be pretty obvious that, at some time, it would be discovered," he added.
He said he cleaned the tank out two or three times between 1961 and 1982 and once between 1982 and when he sold the house in 2014.
Venables told police: "There was absolutely nothing in there when I emptied it. If something was in there it would be perfectly obvious."
Venables said before Brenda went missing she had been "quite depressed" and "always very disappointed" about never having children.
"She had two sisters who had six children between them," he told officers.
Describing the day she vanished, Venables said he had woken up to find his wife not in bed and thought she must have gone to make a cup of tea.
He said: "I went to have a look. She had just disappeared. I felt perhaps she had gone to see friends. There was no sign of her anywhere."
Venables said he reported her missing to a police officer in Kempsey and asked if they could get a police dog to help with the search.
"My last contact was the evening before. From that day to this, I just don't know what happened to her" he said.
Earlier in the trial, jurors heard Venables was having a "long-standing affair" with his mum's former carer Lorraine Styles behind wife Brenda's back.
Prosecutor Michael Burrows QC said he "wanted her out of the way" adding that "it was David Venables who killed her."
He continued: "He wanted to resume his long-standing affair with another woman.
"He knew about the septic tank in its secluded location. It was for him almost the perfect hiding place."
Police officers involved in the "high-profile" search for Mrs Venables after she disappeared in May 1982 described how dogs, boats and a helicopter were used to scour local waterways, fields, woodland and farm outbuildings.
Retired West Mercia Police constable Peter Sharrock was among the search teams but told how the septic tank was apparently overlooked by those looking for 48-year-old Mrs Venables.
Mr Sharrock said he was not aware any officers searched the underground chamber, adding: "I certainly never took part in searching the septic tank.
"I walked past it to get to the river area for searches."
He added: "Nobody mentioned searching the tank."
He described how 2019 media coverage about the discovery of human remains triggered a memory of what he now knew to have been the cesspit.
Giving evidence in the witness box, Mr Sharrock was earlier asked by Venables' QC Timothy Hannam about more details of the concrete-topped tank.
Mr Sharrock said: "When I saw it in the newspaper it set off a recollection in my mind."
"How far were you from it in 1982, when you saw it?" asked Mr Hannam.
"Probably about 20 to 30 metres away," said the retired officer.
"I was walking across grass, I can't recall if it was in the (farmhouse) garden or in the (neighbouring) field."
Asked why he did not go over to the septic tank, he said having grown up in "city areas", a non-mains sewage system "wasn't something I knew about".
He added: "We had been directed to the woodland, and we were just on our way to that area.
"At the time, it just looked like a pad (area) of concrete and I didn't pay it any attention.
"The word is hindsight, really."
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