
A newlywed husband strangled his wife to death with a dressing gown cord and claimed it was an accident during "rough sex", it was alleged in court.
Love cheat Michael Roberts is accused of murdering his pretty wife Victoria, six months after their marriage, and dumping her body in a garage at their Cheshire home.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how mobile phone salesman Roberts, 26, and Victoria Wynne-Jones had a lavish wedding in June 2009.
The blonde bride - known as "Vicky" to friends - moved with her husband to live at a new #125,000 two-bedroomed flat in Partington Square, Swans Reach, Runcorn.
But in the weeks before her death, on 29th November 2009, Vicky suspected Roberts of having adulterous relationships with a number of women, and their marriage became strained.
Prosecuting counsel Mr David Steere QC, said Roberts had sex with female colleagues from the Phones4U store where he worked, causing their marriage to sour.
Dressed in a black suit and purple-striped tie and with his hair in a spiked style, Roberts sat in the dock, hunched-over with his face down, staring at the floor, as the case against him was outlined.
Mr Steere told the jury of eight men and four women that they would hear evidence of how Roberts liked "rough sex" and had used this try to excuse the murder as an accident.
The barrister said that on a number of occasions Roberts is put his hands around the neck of a former lover, Kerrie Hall and applied pressure during sex.
Mr Steere said that Roberts gave police his own account of Vicky's death after her body was discovered in a search of the property on 3rd December 2009.
Roberts claimed he had had returned home with his wife after a Sunday family meal and they had sex in the living room of their third floor flat.
He told detectives that Vicky had put a bathrobe cord around her own neck during sex and asked him to pull it tighter.
Mr Steere said: "What happened to Vicky was no accident during intercourse but a deliberate and determined strangulation with a ligature.
"Because on previous occasions he had behaved in the way described by Kerrie Hall, he has decided to use that as part of his story of what happened to Vicky and pretend
this was all a terrible accident."
Following Vicky's death Roberts carried on as usual in attempt to cover up his crime, sending messages to his then colleague and lover Karen Wilson.
Mr Steere added: "The defendant's behaviour towards Karen Wilson immediately after the killing, his failure to summon any help and his determination thereafter to conceal the death and evade the police are all pointers, inconsistent with a tragic accidental death."
"On Monday 30th November, as the body remained in the flat, the defendant began his attempts to cover up his wifes disappearance or more particularly the fact that he had murdered her."
Roberts sent texts and called Karen Wilson as if nothing had happened. He then started using Vicky's phone to send "bogus messages" as if she was still alive to friends and family.
On the evening of 1st December he visited and ASDA supermarket in Winsford and
bought refuse bags and sponges before going to BandQ for silver insulation sheets and duct tape.
Mr Steere added: "All of these purchases were made with a view to wrapping and binding his wife's body.
"On the night of Tuesday 1st December or Wednesday 2nd neighbours heard noises coming from the defendant's garage.
"At some stage the defendant performed the difficult and risky task of moving the body from their third floor flat to the garage where he concealed it, wrapped and bound beneath a duvet."
Roberts denies a murdering his wife Victoria. The trial continues and is expected to last at least three weeks.
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