A millionaire accused of drowning his wife in her

A millionaire accused of drowning his wife in her bath told police a ‘nutcase’ stalker was responsible for the murder, a court heard today (Monday).

The naked body of 34-year-old Nadine Phillips was found face down with marks on her arms showing she had been ‘restrained.

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She also had bruising on the front of her hips and on her back suggesting she had been ‘forced down’ into the water.

At London’s Southwark Crown Court, husband Alun Phillips, 36, denies murdering the mother of his three young children in May this year at their plush home in Napier Avenue, Fulham, which overlooks the exclusive Hurlingham Tennis Club.

The couple, married for eight years, owned two nursery schools in Chelsea, however one was sold at the beginning of the year netting more than pnds stlng 1 million.

‘She was drowned in the bath of her own home,’ said Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting.

‘The prosecution allege her own husband was responsible.

‘He says that he was not, and an intruder must have done it.

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Mr Hilliard said the husband did not raise the alarm until the morning of May 16, having slept alone in his second floor office in the townhouse the night before.

But he said the ‘security obsessed’ defendant claimed to have been worried about burglars and a stalker, telling detectives that the previous evening at 8.

30am his wife had confronted a ‘weird’ stranger at the door – the last time he saw Nadine.

In addition, Alun Phillips was to find the front door open at 11.

30pm and the burglar alarm had sounded in the early hours.

It was silenced using a special password.

But Mr Hilliard said on neither occasion had the husband checked on his wife and children.

‘Consider this.

The defendant was worried about a stalker, he is worried about burglary.

‘There is the incident at 8.

30pm and the front door is open at 11.

30pm,’ said the barrister

‘If he did not check her whereabouts at 11.

30am, is not now the time, when the alarm goes off in the middle of the night, to look in her room and see she is okay? No.

He does not see her until after 10am the next morning.

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Mr Hilliard said a friend of the dead woman had chatted to Nadine on the ‘phone shortly before 8.

40pm on May 15 – allegedly after the ‘nutcase’ stranger came to the door.

‘Carol Jones said Nadine sounded very cheerful and her normal self.

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The following morning before the alarm was raised, counsel said Alun Phillips answered the door to the driver who takes the eldest daughter to school.

Everything appeared normal.

The middle child was due at nursery but never arrived, the dead woman had a doctor’s appointment.

But Mr Hilliard said: ‘If she had told her husband about the appointment you may think he would have been wondering where she was.

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He said Alun Phillips dialed 999 at 10.

32am and described as ‘hysterical’ requested an ambulance.

‘He certainly sounds in an agitated state and you will have to decide how genuine that was,’ added the barrister.

He said it would have been the ‘easiest thing in the world’ to check and see his wife was still asleep.

In total it was three hours before the defendant claims he realised anything wrong.

‘The alternative is that the defendant knew well before 10.

30am that his wife was dead, because he killed her, and he was putting off the inevitable calling of the emergency services for as long as he dared before the music had to be faced.

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Mr Hilliard said paramedics found the body to be cold and stiff ‘which suggests she had been dead for some hours.

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He said the defendant was advised not to answer police questions during his interview ‘because there was no evidence against him.

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But Alun Phillips did tell officers: ‘I did not kill my wife.

I had no reason to, no motive, financial or otherwise.

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Mr Hilliard asked the jury was it ‘coincidence’ on the night Mrs Phillips was murdered – her husband claiming ‘at the hands of an intruder’ – he had not reset the alarm ‘leaving someone free to come and go.

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or is it deliberately left off to give the
suggestion someone else has been in the house.

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And he repeated that after the ‘strange events’ of the night as outlined by the defendant, was that not the time to switch on lights and go through the house with a toothcomb – and checking on the family.

The trial continues.

ends