A jealous detective who stabbed his unfaithful wif

A jealous detective who stabbed his unfaithful wife after he found out she was seeing an old flame through the Friends Reunited website was jailed for four years today.

(Mon)

Det Con Hugh Needham, 42, thrust a boning knife deep into his 37-year-old wife Laura’s stomach after she told him their ten-year marriage was over.

The policeman had become incensed after discovering her month-long affair with an old school friend she had known as a 16-year-old.

In revenge Needham lured his wife away from the birthday party for her mother near Canterbury, Kent.

He then knifed her as she sat on the living room sofa.

A police colleague confronted Needham who pointed to specks of blood in the lounge and told him: ‘This is your (crime) scene.

I just lost it.

‘

Laura – who has reverted to her maiden name Knox – was rushed to hospital after the attack on May 26, 2002.

The librarian spent 48 hours in intensive care and more than a month in hospital as doctors treated her injuries.

Needham, a policeman for ten years, insisted the stabbing was an accident.

The detective claimed he lost his balance while holding the blade which he intended to use to cut up oranges.

But a jury of six men and six women took nearly nine hours to convict Needham of wounding with intent after a two-week trial.

He was also found guilty of intimidating a witness.

But Needham was formally cleared of attempted murder after the jury failed to reach a verdict in respect of that charge.

Needham, of Bridge Down, Bridge, near Canterbury, for four years, denied the charge.

Jailing the stony-faced detective, once commended for bravery, Judge Jonathan Van Der Werff described it as ‘a most unusual, most unfortunate and most unpleasant case’.

‘There is no doubt you were suffering very great personal difficulty in your marriage, your husband had been unfaithful to you and formed a relationship with an old friend,’ said the judge.

‘There was little or no premeditation in the stabbing, it must have arisen on the spur of the moment.

‘It seems a most peculiar incident, you stabbed her, not very deeply but causing serious injury.

‘

The judge read Needham’s commendation for tackling a knifeman which ‘showed immense restraint and great courage’.

‘A most promising career has been brought to an end,’ the judge said.

Judge van der Werff also said the policeman would suffer an ‘unpleasant time’ in custody.

But he concluded: ‘I do not see the fact that you were at the time a serving policeman as an aggravating feature, because you were acting in a private capacity as a husband and father-of-four children.

‘

Pale-faced, the defendant bowed to the judge and whispered ‘thank-you’ before being led from the dock.

Mr Timothy Mousley, QC, prosecuting, had told jurors: ‘This was a man who could not cope with the breakdown of his marriage.

‘His distress at his wife’s loss of affection for him and her beginning an affair led him to react with violence towards her.

‘He was driven by jealousy and rejection and his violence culminated in a moment when the Crown say he lost all control of himself and tried to kill her.

‘

The QC said Needham was driven by ‘jealousy and rejection’ when he stabbed his wife.

The couple had met as students while working on ferries sailing out of Dover in 1987.

They initially lived together in Needham’s native Blackburn, and had their first child in 1989.

In 1992 they moved back to Kent, settling in Bridge in 1997, where his wife grew up.

Needham, who has a policewoman sister married to a senior Lancashire Police officer, then joined Kent Police.

But after the birth of their first child, the sexual side of the relationship waned, although they had another three children together.

Laura told jurors: ‘In a 13 year relationship sex was not an issue until the last 12 months.

‘He was a good father, we both had busy jobs, but the passion was not there.

‘

The marriage then began to ‘seriously falter’ after Mrs Needham began to look up old friends from school on the Internet.

One of her old pals was Michael Soames, who lived in Bedfordshire.

They exchanged e-mails and agreed to meet up in April last year in Lamberhurst, near Tunbridge Wells.

‘They began to see more and more of each other and soon they were having an affair,’ said Mr Mousley.

But Needham grew suspicious when he found a petrol receipt in his wife’s car from a Bedford garage.

She had told him she had been visiting friends in Brighton, the court heard.

Needham then discovered a bank statement showing she had paid for a meal in Bedford.

Over the next couple of weeks his suspicion deepened as she spent more and more time away from home.

On May 23, Laura was in Bedfordshire when Needham tried to ring, but discovered her mobile phone was switched off.

The following day she agreed to come home in order to discuss their relationship, but had already decided the marriage was over.

On May 26 the Needhams went to the family party by walking down through their garden to the adjoining house where her mother lived.

After the lunch-time party Needham told his wife they needed to go home to discuss their relationship.

But on their return Laura, a Hull University graduate, told him the marriage was over.

She then sat down with a cup of coffee on the sofa, leaving a very small gap next to her which Needham then tried to sit in.

Mr Mousley said: ‘She asked him to move and go and sit on the other side of her.

He turned towards her as if he was going to get up.

‘He didn’t say anything but Laura Needham saw a flash.

‘She felt a sharp pain in her stomach area.

She screamed.

The defendant stood in front of her with the knife in his hand.

‘She ran from the house, up through her own garden into her parent’s garden.

The defendant did not follow her.

‘

The stabbing had left a 3cm wide wound just below her navel which had also pierced her intestine.

David Smith, a police officer and the boyfriend of Needham’s sister Geraldine, saw Laura run in bleeding and rushed to see Needham.

Mr Smith saw spots of blood and spilt coffee in the room.

Needham told him: ‘I’ve gone and done it now, I’ve lost it.

I’ve just lost it.

‘

He then walked into the lounge, pointed to the settee and said ‘There’s your scene’.

Needham went to the kitchen and pointed to a boning knife with a six inch blade and said: ‘There’s the knife’.

After his arrest Needham maintained the stabbing was an accident.

But following Mrs Needham’s release from hospital on June 21 he sent his wife a series of threatening text messages and phone calls.

‘He said that without her statements the police had nothing against him and he would do anything if she dropped charges.

‘

In July Needham asked a friend, Anita Clitheroe, to phone his wife and pretend to be ‘someone close’ to Mr Soames.

Ms Clitheroe’s message, recorded on an answering machine, said: ‘You bitch.

Why don’t you leave me and Michael alone.

‘You f***ed up your own life with your husband and kids, so leave mine alone.

‘That’s not a threat, that’s a promise.

‘

Needham, of Bridge Down, Bridge, near Canterbury, Kent, denied attempted murder, an alternative charge of wounding with intent, and intimidating a witness between May 26 and July 20 last year.

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