Gardener 'killed judge's plants'

A gardener who was sacked by a retired High Court judge returned to his former employer's £1.5m house to spray weed-killer on flowers, a court has heard.

Edward Hancock denies causing criminal damage in Sir Richard Tucker's garden in Stanton, Worcestershire, in May.

Gloucester magistrates were told how Mr Hancock, 45, had been involved in a "clash of egos" with Sir Richard's horticulturalist wife, Jacqueline.

He was fired after 20 years through a note left on his van, the court heard.

'Him or me'

Mr Hancock, from Northway in Tewkesbury, is said to have caused damage to the garden put at £500 after he was sacked in April.

Sir Richard, 77, and his third wife Lady Tucker had returned from a short break in the south of France to find some of their beloved blooms had been decimated, magistrates were told.

Giving evidence, Sir Richard - who presided over high profile cases including the Polly Peck fraud trial - said Mr Hancock had been a "good country gardener", but was "volatile".

Sir Richard explained to the court that there had been tension between the gardener and Lady Tucker.

"There have been times when my wife had said, 'It's either him or me'."

The former judge continued: "I was astonished and felt very offended that a man who had worked for me for 20 years and claimed to be a professional gardener could have done such a thing, particularly nearing the time when the whole village opens its gardens to the public for charity.

"All the circumstances pointed to one man."

'Common gardener'

During his cross-examination of Lady Tucker, defence solicitor Lloyd Jenkins suggested there had been a "clash of gardening cultures" between her and Mr Hancock.

He said: "You are the expert and, without being patronising, Mr Hancock is the common gardener."

She replied: "That might have been what you are told," but told the court that the real problem was Mr Hancock's refusal to communicate with her.

Kenneth Ryland, a 61-year-old company director who lives nearby, said he witnessed Mr Hancock spraying the Tuckers' four acres of land, and grew suspicious because he knew he had been fired.

Mr Ryland, who had also employed Mr Hancock as a gardener until he handed in his notice, told the court: "I said to my wife I think I've just seen Edward Hancock doing something very stupid.

"When I returned to the village after being away I saw the dead plants and dead grass, and put two and two together."

The trial continues.

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