Policeman on trial for murdering lover met her the same year he married his wife, court heard

A POLICEMAN on trial for murdering his lover has told a jury how he met his mistress in the same year he married his wife.

Timothy Brehmer said that he and Claire Parry met at the A&E department of Royal Bournemouth Hospital while he was working in 2006.

Giving evidence, Brehmer, 41, revealed that he married his wife Martha, a CID detective in the town, in July that year after they met on the first day of police training three years earlier.

Breathing heavily and grasping a bunch of tissues Brehmer struggled to control his emotions as he revealed that he and Mrs Parry, who married a police officer in 2008, had had a “sexually flirtatious relationship by text message” after they first met.

He said they did not sleep together until “later years”.

The jury at Salisbury Crown Court has heard the couple had an affair for 11 years. The police officer has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mrs Parry on 9th May this year but denies murdering her.

She was found dying hanging out of his vehicle in the car park of the Horns Inn, in West Parley. A post-mortem found a bone in her neck had been broken.

The prosecution claims Brehmer killed Mrs Parry in anger after she sent a text message from his phone to his wife Martha saying “I am cheating on you”.

Talking about his affair, Brehmer, a father of one, said that he and his lover did not speak about their respective partners saying: “Because we both loved our families respectively, she was very proud of her family and I was very proud of mine.”

Brehmer, from Woodcock Lane, Hordle, said the affair was “very on and off” adding: “Sometimes you wouldn't see each other in four, five months, sometimes you would twice in a week. It was just when stars aligned that made that able to happen.”

He said their affair was “compartmentalised” adding: “Being with her was like being in a suspended state of your best possible self. You didn’t have to worry about all the domestic stuff at home. It was all of the good things; you didn’t have to worry about your vulnerabilities.

“We didn't talk about the bad stuff. It was all the good stuff and none of the bad. It was an affair, it was what you have an affair for.”

Brehmer added: “It was our own little bubble of niceness.”

He also told the jury that he and his lover would not be in contact when there were “big events in our lives like weddings, or the birth of a child”.

On the day they met at the pub, Mrs Parry, the jury has heard, was furious after finding out Brehmer was a “womaniser” and “man-whore” who had had affairs with other women.

Her husband had also said he was leaving her because he suspected she was cheating on him with Brehmer.

In the witness box, Brehmer said he had not realised her marriage was “coming apart at the seams”.

He said he had never admitted to his wife about their affair, saying: “It suited me. I didn’t want to inadvertently destroy our family – that’s what I’ve done anyway.”

Brehmer claims Mrs Parry’s injuries were caused when he tried to get her out of his car after they rowed.

Asked by defence counsel whether he had killed Mrs Parry, Brehmer replied: “I am responsible for her death.”

Asked if he had applied “too much force” to her neck while trying to get her out of the car he said: “I must have done” but added that he “absolutely” did not want to kill her.

He said that during police training he had been taught about positional asphyxia and that “it was not the done thing in Dorset Police” to grab anyone around the neck.

The case continues.