Murderer's mansion sold

Kate Prout

Murderer's mansion sold
31 October 2011
Western Daily Press
Eva Jones

As a home it had a macabre, unique selling point and now it seems convicted killer Adrian Prout's farm is on the verge of being sold.

The sprawling country estate was dug up by murder squad detectives in the fruitless search for the farmer's wife during one of the largest and most notorious police operations the West has seen.

Adrian and Kate Prout's 276 acre Redhill Farm in Redmarley near Newent in Gloucestershire went on the market earlier this year for £1.6million after he was convicted in 2010 of killing her. No trace of her body was found despite a huge search at the farm and he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 18 years.

Prout's fiance Debbie Garlick said she would be moving out of the five bedroom home with their baby daughter in two weeks' time. Mrs Prout was last seen alive, in the farmhouse, on November 5, 2007 and the sentencing judge said it was most likely she had been strangled in a row over a divorce settlement and her body disposed of.  

During the investigation specially-trained "cadaver dog" homed in on a specific spot in the living room at the farmhouse but the prosecution relied entirely on a mass of circumstantial evidence to convict him.

The sentencing judge told Prout, who wants to take a lie detector test in a bid to prove innocence, he believed Mrs Prout holding out for £800,000 when she was being offered £600,000 sparked the killing.

Profit from the sale of the farm, after the outstanding £144,000 mortgage is settled, will be shared between Mrs Prout's grieving family and Prout. He is not entitled to a share of the £626,000 she left him in her will.

A Savills spokeswoman declined to comment on the sale, except to say that contracts were being exchanged.