A husband raped and murdered his estranged wife before claiming that she had taken her own life, a court has heard.
Michael Thompson was found guilty of raping and killing Kimberley Thompson, 43, at their home in Northampton last August.
The 56-year-old was also convicted of two counts of perverting the course of justice.
During the trial at Nottingham Crown Court, the jury heard how Thompson had subjected his estranged wife to years of domestic abuse, including controlling, coercive behaviour and physical violence.
The couple had been married for 19 years but had been separated for the last two, although continuing to live under the same roof.
The court was told that Thompson made hundreds of hours of recordings of his estranged wife, who had made plans to move on without him following their divorce, which was nearing completion.
Thompson – who opted not to give evidence – told police that his wife had been “merry” before they had had sex, and that he had subsequently found her lifeless and surrounded by empty tablet packets and alcohol bottles.
But Miranda Moore KC, prosecuting, said that on the night of his wife’s death Thompson had been in his room watching sexual videos of her, “stewing” about the fact she had a new boyfriend, was planning to move out and had asked for £65,000 as part of their divorce settlement.
He then went into his wife’s bedroom and raped and suffocated her before staging a suicide scene and posting social media messages from her account to suggest that she had been drunk before she died.
Mrs Thompson’s post mortem found no evidence of any alcohol and only low levels of caffeine, paracetamol and codeine in her body.
After four days of deliberation, the jury reached a unanimous guilty verdict.
It later emerged that jurors had not been informed of a fresh investigation into the death of a previous partner of Thompson’s that was opened last year.
Rhonda Anderson, 29, was found dead in the bath of her home in the Briar Hill area of Northampton on July 8, 2000. An inquest later that year ruled that she had died in an accident caused by electrocution when a radio fell into the water.
The prosecuting lawyers in the Kimberley Thompson murder case had argued that the jury should be told of the Anderson inquiry, arguing that Thompson had used it as a means by which to threaten his wife before he murdered her. However, the evidence was ruled to be inadmissible.
In a statement issued after the verdicts, police confirmed that the inquiry into Anderson’s death had been closed because of insufficient evidence.
Det Ch Insp Torie Harrison, from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said: “I hope today provides Kim’s family and friends with some comfort.
“It became clear throughout our investigation that Kim had been subjected to domestic abuse for much of her relationship with Thompson, with manipulation, coercive control, and physical violence the norm.”
Thompson is due to be sentenced next week.
