Jealous wife 'killed husband with hammer'

A jealous wife who suspected her husband of infidelity bludgeoned him to death with a hammer and said later: "If I can't have him, no one can", a court heard today.

Georgina Challen, 57, allegedly launched a "frenzied" attack on retired businessman Richard as he ate lunch in the kitchen of their former marital home. The couple had been living apart and were trying to save their marriage, but Challen believed her husband's efforts were a "ruse" dreamed up after they wrote a "post-nuptial agreement", Guildford crown court was told.

On August 14 last year, her "anger boiled into rage" and she attacked him at the house in Claygate, near Esher, Surrey, jurors heard. The mother-of-two later drafted a suicide note before driving to Beachy Head, East Sussex.

She admitted the crime and said she was "going to jump", it is alleged. Opening the case, prosecutor Caroline Carberry said the couple had been married 31 years when Challen, known as Sally, arrived at the house, Ruxley Ridge, with a hammer in her handbag. They had planned to clear out the property ahead of a "visit to Australia" before moving to a new home in the UK.

But a suspicious Challen picked up the phone and dialled 1471 to find out who her 61-year-old husband had called, rang a number back and heard a female voice, jurors were told.

She was consumed by "jealousy and suspicion" and "enraged". Ms Carberry added: "She made her husband some lunch and, as he ate, fetched a hammer ... from her handbag and hit him repeatedly over the head in an attack of ex-treme ferocity." The next day she called her cousin from Beachy Head. Specialist officers and a chaplain were sent.

"She said, 'I killed him with a hammer. I hit him lots of times ... If I can't have him, no one can,'" Ms Carberry said.

Police found Mr Challen's body in the kitchen covered in blankets. A note placed on it read: "I love you, Sally."

Challen, of Claygate, denies murder. The trial continues.