The Wolverhampton woman who killed her husband in her kitchen and tried to cover it up by claiming he hanged himself
Amy Pugh was sentenced today for killing her estranged husband, before telling police she had found him hanging by his own belt at her home.
The 34-year-old, of Wolverhampton, had been separated from Kyle Pugh, 32, when she killed him in the kitchen of her home in Aston Drive, Newport, in March 2022, jurors heard during her trial earlier this year.
The court was told how Pugh and her husband had been in “volatile, turbulent and abusive” relationship that would involve physical violence to each other and was often fuelled by drink or drugs.
On the night Kyle Pugh died, his killer had claimed her husband had left her home after he visiting his children. She said the pair had been drinking together but got into a row after she discovered his new girlfriend was allegedly pregnant.
She said that she later went into the kitchen to let the dog out of the back door, and that was when she saw her husband hanging by his belt.
She told police she dragged him into the house and tried to wake him by slapping him, which she said is what caused injuries to his face.
But this had all been a “fabrication”.
The jury heard how Pugh had called her father after discovering Mr Pugh's body, and waited more than 20 minutes before finally dialling 999.
Kyle Pugh had suffered fatal neck compression injuries and died in hospital the next day.
Killing and cover-up attempt
But Amy Pugh consistently denied killing him, using her husband's mental health history to manipulate and lie to both his family and police.
In reality, Pugh had murdered her husband in the kitchen during a violent row and had tried to cover it up.
Suspicions were aroused when police discovered Mr Pugh had sent messages to family and friends throughout the day of his death, making plans with them, including a voice note sent to a friend about meeting later that night.
Pugh had also answered a phone call from her husband's new partner moments after she had killed him. The phone was subsequently never found.
And it was not the first time police had been called to the Newport address.
In October 2021, Pugh had set fire to her husband's belongings at their home after a row. She was later charged and handed a 19-month suspended sentence for arson.
During her murder trial, prosecutor Mr Julian Evans KC said the incident, which triggered the pair's separation, was part of a “volatile” and “violent” relationship that ultimately led to Kyle Pugh's death.
Family members had described witnessing violence between the pair.
Pugh, of Stafford Road, had admitted to police that her relationship with her husband had been “toxic”, describing it as "like Harley Quinn and the Joker" - referencing two violent villains from Batman comics.
Mr Pugh was in a new relationship with another woman at the time of the attack, but was visiting his children at the family home in Aston Drive that he had shared with the defendant.
But Mr Evans had told the jury that it was Amy Pugh's violence that ultimately cost her husband his life.
"It was violence that involved Amy striking Kyle in the face and he struck her back, but it didn't stop there," he had said. "It involved Amy overpowering Kyle. She gained the upper hand over him, she was able to subdue him and deliberately compressed his neck by some means, whether that be a chokehold, strangulation or a ligature.
"It was violence directed at the neck and violence that was unlawful."