A wealthy landowner was jailed for life this week for the murder of his estranged wife, whose body has never been found.
Retired teacher Kate Prout, 55, vanished from the farm at Redmarley near Ledbury that she shared with her husband Adrian Prout during acrimonious divorce proceedings.
Prout, 47, who owns a successful pipe-laying business and runs a commercial pheasant shoot, was found guilty of her murder on Friday.
Mr Justice Nigel Davis, at Bristol Crown Court, sentenced Prout, from Redmarley near Ledbury, to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years.
Following Prout’s conviction Mr Justice Davis said: “I have no way of knowing what your inner feelings must be or what they are now. You’ve not shown much emotion throughout the trial.
“It’s absolutely right that the prosecution’s case has been that a sudden row must have blown up that night.
“It rankled with you that Kate would not accept the offer you made of £600,000 to settle the divorce. In your own mind that was fair.
“More importantly to you, if she accepted it you could hang on to the farm. But she would not accept it.”
Mr Justice Davis said Mrs Prout’s decision to attempt a reconciliation with her husband in late March 2007 proved to be “disastrous”.
The judge added that he suspected no weapon was used “as there was no blood and her body has never been found”. He said: “You concealed the body thereafter. This was done in a very careful way. In view of the comments you made, I couldn’t rule out you may have had the assistance of others.”
Outside court, Acting Detective Superintendent Neil Kelly, of Gloucestershire Police, said the force intended to quiz Prout again over the whereabouts of his murdered wife’s body.
He said: “This sentence reflects the gravity and seriousness of the offence. “We will continue to appeal to Prout to give Kate’s family the chance to say a proper goodbye by revealing where her body is. “We hope this sentence will go some way in allowing the family to start to move on from what has been an incredibly distressing time.”
Mrs Prout’s family members, who sat in court throughout, declined to comment. Prout’s fiancee, Debbie Garlick, who has recently given birth to their child, did not attend court.
