 |
| Kate Prout |
Cadaver dog sniffed death in Prout home
05 March 2011
This is Gloucestershire
EVIDENCE of a dead body inside murdered Kate Prout's home was discovered by a sniffer dog, it has emerged.
The "cadaver dog" homed in on an area in the living room of the Redmarley home she shared with her husband Adrian Prout, who was convicted of her killing last year.
An hour-long documentary on the murder case told how the dog, which was specially trained to seek out dead bodies and where deaths occurred, concentrated on a specific spot in the living room at Redhill Farm.
And for the first time another of Kate Prout's brothers, Ted Wakefield, spoke about the case.
Appearing on the Crime and Investigation network's The Perfect Murder?, he said he told his then-friend Prout that if he had done "something silly" he would "spend the rest of his life in jail, or always looking over his shoulder".
Prout was convicted in January 2010 of killing Kate amid an acrimonious divorce battle on Bonfire Night 2007. She wanted £800,000 from the sale of £1.2 million Redhill Farm but to keep it, Prout offered her £600,000. On November 5 she vanished, without taking clothes, money, valuables or her car. Prout reported her missing five days later, after another of her brothers, Richard Wakefield and her former partner David Edge persuaded him to contact police.
After a massive search of the farm and surrounding countryside Gloucestershire Constabulary found no evidence of Kate, 55, inside or outside the property.
There were no traces of blood, or signs of a struggle, but the cadaver dog indicated to police that a dead body had been in the living room.
Gloucestershire Constabulary drew together a mass of circumstantial evidence that pointed to Prout having strangled his wife with his bare hands and burying her body.
A jury of 11 men and women found him guilty by a majority of 10 to one and he was sentenced to life in prison. He must serve a minimum of 18 years.
His family continues to protest his innocence but her family has pleaded with Prout to reveal where his wife is so they can give her a decent burial.
The programme, part of the channel's Nightmare in Suburbia series, also featured Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kelly who led the investigation, Kate's brother Richard Wakefield and his wife Linda.
"I thought it was quite a good programme in how it put the case over," said Richard Wakefield, who lives in Far Oakridge, near Stroud.
"It was just the truth. At least everybody can see what really happened."
The Perfect Murder? will be screened on the Crime and Investigation channel again, tomorrow at 8pm and Monday at 3am.
Previous Article
