Husband jailed for Spanish murder

Allen Heard killed his wife after celebrating her birthday

A man has been jailed for life for strangling his wife after they emigrated to Spain.

Allen Heard, 63, originally from Bedworth, Warwickshire, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court in November to murdering Patricia Heard.

Mrs Heard, then aged 58, was reported missing in July 2006, just a few months after the pair moved to the country.

Heard was caught after confessing to his children that he had killed his wife and buried her in a shallow grave.

Her body was found almost two years later at an isolated spot on the northern Costa Blanca in August.

Killed with rope

Mr Heard, who was living in Oliva, Spain, at the time of his arrest, was prosecuted for his wife's murder in England after Spanish police handed the case over to their British counterparts.

A post-mortem examination revealed Mrs Heard had been strangled.

Sentencing Heard to a minimum of 11 years, Mrs Justice Rafferty said she accepted his account that he used a rope to kill his wife at their home.

The court was told how the father-of-two, who had previously been in the Royal Navy, killed his wife after they had both spent the night in a bar to celebrate her 58th birthday.

Patricia Heard's body was found on the northern Costa Blanca last year

They had been seen having a heated discussion there.

Heard confessed to police last year that his wife had accused him of having an affair and he lost control when she demanded to have the password to his email account to check his messages.

He also told of how he had driven to a mountainous area, which his wife had loved, to bury her body.

However, Michael Burrows QC, prosecuting, told the court that Heard had used his wife's mobile phone to send messages three days after her murder to his phone and her sister's.

Mrs Heard's family and friends were told by her husband how the couple had argued and the last he had seen of her was when he dropped her off in Benidorm, the court heard.

The couple's son Mark had appealed for information on his mother's disappearance on a local radio station and by distributing leaflets in Benidorm.