Monday 6th
February 2006, 41 year-old Donna Hunt’s
lifeless body was found in a car park at Forest School,
Winnersh, where she worked as a lab technician,
Hunt a school caretaker
accused of murdering his wife of 17 years, wept
uncontrollably as he told a court how he bludgeoned her to
death and then lied in a bid to cover it up.
Giving evidence, Hunt recalled the events that had led up
to his wife’s death.
He said she had started drinking at around 10.30am on the
Sunday of her death and when he got back from a rugby
game, she had been drunk.
He said they had an argument over their daughters who had
gone to see his mother that day.
Hunt said Donna did not like his mother and she did not
want their children to go and see her, calling her “a
senile old witch” and “a ****ing dragon”.
Hunt said Donna fell asleep and woke up around 9.30pm when
she had a go at him.
He said he did not want to argue with her but she said she
wanted to tell him something and he should go to check the
children were asleep.
He said when he came down she walked out into the garden
and into the adjacent car park.
There, Donna said Hunt was useless around the house and
that all he wanted to do was play internet poker, he told
the jury.
Hunt said: “What did she expect? She was always asleep at
night unless she was to go out.”
The defendant then said his wife replied: “Funny you
should say that because when I go out I have sex with one
of your friends. “But not just sex, all sorts.”
It was then Hunt picked up an iron bar and struck her
head.
He also told the jury that about four years ago she told
him she had stopped loving him.
Hunt said things had got better between them but recently
she had shocked him by being very forceful in bed.
During cross-examination, John Price, prosecuting, said
Hunt intended to kill his wife and then put on an act to
try to get away with it.
He asked Hunt: “When she had fallen to the ground and she
was lying there, why did you hit her again? Was it to make
sure she was dead?”
Hunt said he didn’t know why he had hit her again.
Mr Price told the court Hunt, still wearing blood-soaked
clothes, put on a façade to his two daughters, his friends
and the police the next morning to try and get away with
what he had done.
One of his daughters asked where a blouse was and he told
her to go and ask her mother.
Mr Price said they then searched the school grounds
looking for her.
Mr Price said it was only after he was arrested and knew
he couldn’t get away with it that he changed his story.
Hunt said: “I had killed their mother, I was trying to
cover it up. I didn’t want my children to know.”
Hunt admitted manslaughter but denied murder.
The judge at Oxford
Crown Court said he must serve a minimum of 13 years
before being considered for parole.
