Trial of 'amorality and bravado'

By Hugh Turnbull
BBC Radio Wales

Man guilty of plotting wife's murder

I've been a journalist for 40 years - but I've never seen anyone so completely amoral as Stephen Marsh.

Here is a man who in one breath is professing his undying love for his wife, Jaspal, and saying he wanted to be with her 24 hours a day - yet in the next is admitting a long string of affairs and one-night stands.

A man who prowled internet chat rooms looking for sex, a man who tried to persuade three of his girlfriends to use knives in the course of sex, a man who finally got to play out his fantasies of cutting and bondage in a nine month affair with Rebecca Harris that was to end in murder.

You might expect such a man to squirm a little in the witness box when questioned about the details.

But Stephen Marsh didn't flinch - even when he was shown the depraved and deeply disturbing video he made of Harris near-naked on his wife's bed - bound and gagged - while he slapped her, called her a whore, and cut her with the kitchen knife that she was later to use on Jaspal Marsh.

With unbelievable bravado for a man facing a murder charge, he told the jury: "She thoroughly enjoyed it."

Marsh told the jury he tries to block Rebecca Harris out of his mind

In his charcoal grey suit with crisp, white shirt and silver-grey tie, Marsh looked every inch the young executive as he stood in the witness box for two whole days.

He spoke clearly, articulately. His voice never faltered, even when he claimed to be ashamed of the way he'd deceived Jaspal.

But Jaspal wasn't deceived. Rebecca Harris's number was stored in her mobile phone - under Bitch. She'd told friends she'd had enough of her husband's womanising, and she'd asked her personnel department about reverting to her maiden name.

Stephen Marsh's 13-year marriage in which, he agreed, Jaspal did all the work and he had all the fun, was under threat. So he persuaded Rebecca Harris, the woman he'd introduced to knives, to use one on Jaspal.

At least she had the decency to cry when she was questioned about it - though her claim that Marsh was controlling her by text messages was laughable.

Certainly, he egged her on when she was frightened she'd been seen. But it was she who let herself into the house at 25 Howard's Way, Gorseinon, crept upstairs and stabbed Jaspal 16 times, leaving that kitchen knife sticking out of her victim's chest.

And far from falling apart, as she claimed, it was she who seemed to be in control in the handful of text messages police recovered after the murder.

She'd told Marsh: "She screamed and fought. I'm shaking so much."

Mrs Marsh had asked in work about reverting to her maiden name

But later it was Harris who reminded Marsh of the need to send an innocent text message as an alibi, and who texted: "no you dope" when a message he sent didn't meet her requirements.

Marsh's only explanation for the texts - which he had to admit that he'd opened and replied to - was that he couldn't remember them.

Had he seen a doctor for this catastrophic memory loss, asked Huw Davies QC. "No, because it was alcohol induced," he said.

Watching him in the witness box, I had an uncomfortable feeling that he was enjoying every minute.

He must have known that the evidence against him was so strong, he had virtually no chance of escaping conviction.

Perhaps he thought he could persuade the eight women on the jury to fall in love with him, as easily as he'd seduced the vulnerable young women who crossed his path.

This was a trial with many extraordinary moments.

But the one that stands out was Marsh's answer, when he was asked about his feelings towards Rebecca Harris now.

"I try to block her out of my mind," he said. "I have no opinion of Rebecca."

No opinion of the woman who stabbed his wife 16 times and was now accusing him of planning the murder?

It was not the best answer he could have given the jury. But in a sea of lies, it had the ring of truth.

Rebecca Harris had played her part and had been disposed of. All that mattered to Stephen Marsh was Stephen Marsh and his own perverted pleasures.