'Secret lover' murder jury go out

Attempts have been made to set fire to Beverley Parkhouse's duvet

The jury has retired in the trial of a man accused of murdering his married secret lover and setting fire to the bedroom to cover his tracks.

Royston Moore, 52, of Nantymoel, Bridgend county, denies killing care worker Beverley Parkhouse, 45, at her father's nearby home in September 2006.

The prosecution has claimed that he admitted the killing to prison inmates, but he denies that.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that her husband had no knowledge of the affair.

Gerard Elias QC, prosecuting, has said Mr Moore also corresponded with other women via a dating agency after he started their relationship.

He told the court the pair met twice a week at Mr Moore's home or at her father's in Ogmore Vale, Bridgend, where she often stayed since her mother died six months earlier.

Royston Moore did not go into the witness box to give evidence

He admits meeting her on the night, after his usual signal of flashing his car lights. But the court was told Mr Moore was "tiring" of the affair.

The court heard that Mrs Parkhouse would smuggle the defendant to an upstairs bedroom at her widowed father's home, where they would spend a few hours together before he left.

On the night of her death, the couple met at a social club and then at Mrs Parkhouse's father's home, the jury heard.

The next morning her father, Kenneth Palmer, woke up expecting to see his daughter in the kitchen but when she failed to come downstairs by 11.30am he went to her bedroom.

'Happily married'

Mrs Parkhouse was dead in bed. She had been strangled or suffocated and attempts had been made to set fire to the duvet.

The killer had also removed the batteries from the fire alarm.

It was initially thought she had died of smoke inhalation but a murder investigation was launched following the results of a post-mortem examination.

The court was told Mr Moore had been in contact with two lonely hearts women before Mrs Parkhouse's murder and again six days after her death.

The court heard that Mrs Parkhouse was "happily married" to her husband Andre for 29 years and he knew nothing about the affair.