Woman 'killed by obsessed ex-husband'

A man murdered his ex-wife after becoming fixated with her new life as a single woman, a court has heard.

Lynne Madden, 38, started French jive classes and met a new man after her divorce from Ian Madden, the father of her two children.

But her ex-husband was still obsessed with her, hacking into her emails up to 177 times a day, Southwark Crown Court was told on Tuesday.

After weeks of spying on her, he discovered she had struck up a friendship with businessman Steve Squires, the jury heard.

'Ian knows about you'

Prosecutor Anthony Leonard told the jury Mr Madden must have known her Hotmail password to be able to read her emails from his computer.

"He seems to be obsessed in knowing who Lynn Madden was communicating with on the net," he said.

"His obsession with looking into her e-mail... builds up to such an extent that, between 2.45am and 5.30pm on December 13, he looked into her e-mail 177 times."

He repeatedly read one message in which Mrs Madden warned Mr Squires: "Ian knows about you," the court was told.

She invited businessman Steve Squires round for a meal at the former marital home in Havering-atte-Bower in Essex.

Noose draped over head

Mr Madden sat outside in his car until Mr Squires left and paid her a final visit, said prosecutor Anthony Leonard QC.

He throttled her with his hands then wound a ligature around her neck while their children slept just yards away, the court was told.

The prosecutor said he then put a noose over her head in "an amateurish bid" to make it look like suicide.

But DNA and other evidence provided a "convincing case which goes to prove that the defendant was responsible for her death," said Mr Leonard.

Madden, of Eton Avenue, Greenford, west London, denies one count of murder on 15 December last year.

The trial continues.