Suffocation jury hears sex emails

Amelia died two days before her fourth birthday

A jury hearing the case of a man accused of murdering his daughter has heard the contents of sexual emails between his wife and her lover.

Hospital radiographer Gavin Hall, 33, killed three-year-old Amelia as her mother and sister slept in their Northamptonshire home.

Mr Hall, of Irchester, denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The trial at Northampton Crown Court was adjourned until Thursday morning.

Judge Charles Wide QC is then expected to conclude his summing up and the jury will be sent out to begin considering its verdict.

Defence counsel Nicholas Atkinson QC said the emails sparked Hall's "emotional disturbance" that led to the killing on 29 November 2005

He said Mr Hall had demanded to read all the emails after discovering the affair in the middle of October last year between his wife Joanne and a district judge.

'Defendant humiliated'

Despite constant reassurances that the fling was over, the judge and Mr Hall's wife Joanne - who met through a sex contact website - continued to communicate.

In some of the emails the judge described various fantasies and sex acts which he hoped to carry on when the pair finally met, the court heard.

Mr Atkinson said: "This is part of the story because it is the background of this defendant being raised up and pushed down, humiliated and distressed."

The trial has heard that Mr Hall, 33, fed Amelia anti-depressant pills to make her drowsy.

He sat and cuddled his daughter for over an hour before smothering her with a rag soaked with the anaesthetic chemical before going on to make an unsuccessful attempt at suicide.

The girl died two days before her fourth birthday.

Summing up the prosecution case, William Coker QC, said two psychiatrists had agreed Hall was suffering some kind of "adjustive disorder" at the time of the killing.

"You are going to have to decide whether that did impair his mental responsibility," he told jurors.

The trial continues.