'Jealous husband' tried to kill his wife - court told

A lawyer said that 49 year old William Robert (Roy) Thompson also left suicide notes which included a confession to the murder of his wife Carol.

But in the end, Thompson from Kempton Drive, Coleraine didn't go through with the killing or the suicide.

Crown lawyer Richard Weir QC told Antrim Crown Court that Thompson went to his former marital home at Mosside near Ballycastle to see his wife in March last year several months after their marriage had broken down.

After Mrs Thompson opened the door, Mr Weir said the defendant sprayed aerosol in her face and hit her three times over the head with a crowbar.

He then kicked her while she was on the ground and choked her as he screamed at her to tell him the identity of her new boyfriend.

Mr Weir said Thompson shouted: "Who is he? I am going to kill you and then I am going to kill myself. I have a rope in the house. I have been planning this for weeks".

The jury of six men and six women were told that Mrs Thompson managed to get hold of the crowbar and attempted to hit her husband.

She also tried to escape from the house but he pulled her back.

Mrs Thompson then talked to her husband and calmed him down, saying that things between them would be okay.

Mr Weir said Mrs Thompson persuaded her husband to ring the emergency services and he accompanied her in an ambulance to hospital where he told medics she had fallen in the bath.

But after he left her for a time in a hospital cubicle, Mrs Thompson told staff what had really happened and the PSNI were called, said Mr Weir.

He added that police found a number of suicide notes in Thompson's home and in them he also wrote, "I would also like to confess to my wife's killing".

In the attic, police found a gallows which Thompson had constructed with the intention of killing himself.

Mr Weir said Thompson later told police in interviews he had hit his wife three times but added that he hadn't intended to kill her or to do her any harm.

Thompson pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The lawyer said it was a carefully planned and executed operation carried out by a "jealous and resentful man who couldn't accept how his wife was getting on with her life."

Mr Weir said Thompson's resolve may have deserted him but that didn't take away from the evidence which amounted to an intent to kill.

Mrs Thompson, who is a teacher at Broughshane Primary School, is expected to give her evidence via a video link.

The case continues.