Prison guard denies wife's murder

The court was told Mrs Johnson had started an affair

The trial of a Nottinghamshire prison officer charged with murdering his wife after she started an affair with a taxi driver she met on holiday has begun.

Ronald Johnson, 53, of Whinney Moor Road, Retford denied the murder charge at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday.

The prosecution told the court how Mr Johnson returned from a night shift at Ranby Prison in August last year and attacked his wife while she slept.

Sue Johnson suffered a serious head wound and died. The case continues.

The couple had been married for 32 years but during a holiday in Egypt, the court was told how Mrs Johnson, 49, flirted with a taxi driver and flew back to the resort a month after coming back to Nottinghamshire to be with him.

On her return, the couple began arguing and Mrs Johnson asked for a divorce from her husband.

The prosecution said that while Mrs Johnson slept on 17 August 2006, she was stabbed three times in the neck and given several blows to the head with a hammer by her husband.