'Humiliated' man killed his wife

The court was told Mrs Johnson was moving to Cyprus with her lover

A man accused of killing his wife after she had an affair was a "broken and humiliated man" in the weeks before she died, a court has heard.

Ronald Johnson, 53, a prison officer of Thrumpton near Retford, Notts denies murdering his wife Sue, 49.

He accepts bludgeoning her to death as she slept at their home.

Peter Joyce QC, defending at Nottingham Crown Court, said Mr Johnson's actions were a result of the "turmoil, pain and anguish into which he was cast".

Mr Johnson is accused of murdering his wife after she started an affair with taxi driver Saad Elembaby, 15 years her junior, whom she met while on holiday with her husband.

'Utterly rejected'

Michael Mann QC, prosecuting, alleged Mr Johnson plotted to kill his wife after discovering she had returned to Sharm el-Sheikh behind his back to continue her fledgling relationship with her lover.

He is alleged to have hit her half a dozen times on her skull with a claw hammer before stabbing her repeatedly with a kitchen knife.

Mr Joyce said the defendant had been left humiliated and "utterly rejected" by his wife and two daughters who, he claimed, colluded with their mother to allow her to continue with the affair.

The court was told that Mr Johnson was a "kindly man who wouldn't harm a fly" and was forced to "crawl like a dog" to his wife.

The final straw was hearing his wife say she was moving with her lover to Cyprus - the country to which the couple had been planning for several years to retire.

The trial continues.