A retired pig farmer has been found guilty of the 1982 murder of his wife, whose body was found hidden in a septic tank at their farmhouse 37 years later. David Venables, 89, tried to blame serial killer Fred West for Brenda Venables’s murder, but was convicted by a 10-2 majority verdict on Friday.
During the pensioner’s month-long trial, his legal team said West had links to the Worcestershire village of Kempsey, where Brenda disappeared in May 1982. They also claimed Mrs Venables may have left her marital home at Quaking House Farm and “either killed herself or met with or encountered someone who wished her harm.”
But the jury of seven women and five men deliberated for almost 17 hours over four days before convicting Venables of murdering his wife on either May 3 or May 4 1982. At the start of the trial, prosecutor Michael Burrows QC said Venables had “got away with murder” for nearly 40 years after dumping his wife in the septic tank close to Quaking House Farm.
