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| Life for 'weakest link' killer A man who murdered his wife as he shouted "you are the weakest link, goodbye" has been jailed for life at Maidstone Crown Court. Rail guard Richard Cooper, 40, from Tonbridge in Kent, had denied murdering his wife Teresa, 46, at her flat in Gillingham, Kent in March last year. The court was told how Cooper secretly recorded his wife meeting her lover with a voice-activated recorder earlier on the day she died. He became enraged after listening to the tape and went back to her Randolph Road flat, where he strangled her. Sentencing Cooper, Judge Patience said the crime was "wicked beyond belief. "When you returned to that flat on the evening of 20 March you were convinced in your own mind that your wife had been unfaithful and had cheated on you. "I'm quite sure that you had not heard that on the tape. "I'm also sure that you were angered by your inability to hear anything on that tape. "It's also clear to me that once you began arguing with her in the flat that you were determined that she should die." He added that Cooper had "cruelly" taunted his wife before killing her. Members of Mrs Cooper's family shouted "yes" as the verdict was passed and as he was led away to the cells one shouted "scum". The court previously heard that Cooper had become suspicious that his wife was having an affair with Sevenoaks postman, Christopher Sindall. Cooper attached a Dictaphone to the underside of a table at his wife's home. On the day of the murder he went to a pub and listened to a tape recording of the pair meeting. He went back to the house and confronted his wife. There he strangled her during a heated argument - the tape machine was still recording as Mrs Cooper died. The jury was told that Mrs Cooper, who was a rail conductor, had left her husband in October 2000 to live in Gillingham, but she continued to keep in touch with her husband. They started seeing each other again in November but in March last year Christopher Sindall wrote to Mrs Cooper. She responded, leaving the letter on the door mat of her Gillingham home with a cross on the back. Cooper steamed the letter open and decided to spy on his wife, believing she had rekindled her affair with Mr Sindall. Describing the attack, Cooper said in court: "My arms were stiff and there was stinging in my eyes. I remember a blow to the side of the head and that was when she hit me with the table leg. "That's more or less where I lost it completely, there is no sensation, nothing." Cooper said his wife's last words, referring to her lover, were: "Chris, I will always love you". Asked why he had killed his wife, he said: "It's an unanswerable question I'm afraid and I wish there was a reason." After the sentencing, defence barrister Michael O'Sullivan read out a letter expressing Cooper's apologies to his wife's family. "You may well blame me, even hate me forever but I really am truly sorry for everything," Cooper said. Mrs Cooper's sister Pat Lower said after the verdict: "It pains us to think that Teresa was a victim of domestic violence, alone with no-one to help her. "Teresa is deeply missed by all of our family and her many friends." Detective Chief Inspector Gary Beautridge said the investigation had been unique. "Murder is normally only seen through the eyes of the murderer. "The tape recording, which was intended to ensnare Teresa, captured her husband, Richard Cooper, killing her. "Her death was harrowing, tortuous and lingering. Her husband's rage and jealousy overcame her fight for life." 1st February 2002 |
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