Man admits fatal attack on wife

Former miner Jim Ingram admitted to a jury that he launched a fatal attack on his estranged wife after she told him she had another man.

Just minutes earlier there had been sexual activity between them and he believed she would return to live with him, he said. "I just exploded," he told Stafford Crown Court yesterday. "I went crazy, I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it now."

Ingram, aged 63, of of Don Grove, Cannock, denies murdering his 61-year-old estranged wife Diane on March 13 of this year. In answer to Mr Rex Tedd QC, defending, he said he admitted the manslaughter of his wife by reason of provocation.

Ingram admitted that he had saved something in the region of £250,000 which, during the course of the break up, he had taken out of his accounts and put into the hands of other members of his family. Ingram said after the court order was made for him to hand over £133,000 to Mrs Ingram he arranged for his son Matt to get a banker's draft.

Ingram added that after his wife left him in 2005 and went to live less than a minute and a half away in Avon Road, she would not leave him alone.

He told the court they continued to have sex, at his house and in her flat. "As the proceedings went on I still had hopes we could patch things up," he said.

"Prior to the day of her death she never mentioned another man," said Ingram, adding that earlier the same day he had met her in Cannock library where she confronted him over having the house instead of the money.

Later he saw her walking home and asked if he could go in.

He told the jury they went into the bedroom where sexual activity took place. Then they went back downstairs to the kitchen for a cup of tea and that was when she told him she had met someone else.

"I just went bananas. I lost control." Ingram added when he launched the attack he had no idea he had a screwdriver in his hand.

The hearing continues.