Timothy Brehmer: Married Dorset Police officer cleared of murdering lover but faces jail for manslaughter
Claire Parry died from a brain injury caused by compression of the neck after the incident on 9 May.
Tuesday 27 October 2020 23:43, UK
A married police officer who strangled his lover after she revealed their affair to his wife has been cleared of murder.
Timothy Brehmer, 41, killed mother-of-two Claire Parry, 41, in a pub car park on 9 May.
She died during a "kerfuffle" in Brehmer's car outside Horns Inn in West Parley, Dorset, after she used his phone to send a message to his wife saying: "I am cheating on you."
Her cause of death was a brain injury caused by compression of the neck, a post-mortem examination found.
A jury took just under three hours to find the ex-Dorset Police officer not guilty of murdering Mrs Parry.
Brehmer had previously admitted the manslaughter of the married nurse, who he had been having an affair with for more than 10 years.
He is due to be sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court by Mr Justice Jacobs on Wednesday.
Brehmer claimed Mrs Parry accidentally suffered the fatal injury while he was trying to push her out of the vehicle following the text so he could drive away.
He previously told the court his arm "must have slipped up in all the melee".
Brehmer said he then left the car without realising Mrs Parry was "poorly" and he didn't intend to hurt her "in any shape or form".
Mrs Parry died the following day and the cause of death was a brain injury caused by compression of the neck.
Brehmer told the court he had planned to go and kill himself because of the consequences to his family of their affair being revealed.
The trial heard that in the days before her death, Mrs Parry had started to believe her marriage to Andrew Parry, also a Dorset Police officer, was coming to an end as well as her relationship with the defendant.
She had carried out research using an alias on Facebook into Brehmer and became convinced he had had at least two other affairs.
Mrs Parry was in contact with a police officer called Kate Rhodes, who told her she had an affair with Brehmer in late 2011, and this made her see him "in a very different light".
Under cross-examination by Richard Smith QC, prosecuting, Brehmer initially denied being a "well-practised liar" but then accepted the term after admitting he lied "consistently well" to his wife over the affair.
Asked if he described himself as a "devious b*", Brehmer responded: "That's how I consider myself now."
At the time of the incident, Brehmer was seconded to the National Police Air Service based at Bournemouth Airport.
He has since been sacked by Dorset Police.
Chief Constable James Vaughan said: "As police officers our duty, first and foremost, is to protect the public and for a serving officer to take a life of another in this way is incomprehensible.
"His conduct fell dramatically below that which I, his colleagues and the public expect from a police officer, and he clearly has no place holding the office of constable."