Police officer Timothy Brehmer jailed for 10 years for killing lover Claire Perry after she revealed affair
Watch: Ex-police officer jailed for killing married lover
A "womaniser" police officer who strangled his lover after she revealed their affair to his wife has been jailed for ten-and-a-half years.
Married PC Timothy Brehmer, 41, killed mother-of-two Claire Parry after she sent a text message from his phone to his wife, saying: “I am cheating on you”.
He was cleared by a jury yesterday of murder but had already admitted manslaughter over the killing, which happened in his car outside the Horns Inn in West Parley, Dorset, on May 9 this year.
The former Dorset Police officer claimed at trial that he had accidentally inflicted the fatal injury during a “kerfuffle” as he tried to push Ms Parry out of his Citroen car.
But Mr Justice Jacobs, sentencing this morning at Salisbury Crown Court, said Brehmer has “lost your self-control” and deliberately took hold of the victim’s neck before killing her.
Jailing him for ten-and-a-half years, of which he will serve two thirds of the sentence in prison, the judge said: “This is a case where I should sentence you on the basis you lost your self-control following the sending of the text message to your wife where the affair was revealed, rather than on the basis that you had no intention to kill or cause really serious harm.
“I am sure that you did deliberately take Claire Parry by the neck applying significant force with your forearm or the crook of your elbow for a period of time while she struggled against you, thereby causing the severe neck injuries which the pathologist described.”
He said the medical evidence showed that Brehmer had held on to her neck for more than 30 seconds, and a simple struggle did not explain the severity of the injuries.
“You were a trained and experienced police officer and your character witnesses described how you would help others”, added the judge.
“Yet you did nothing to try to help Claire Parry. You did not ask her how she was. That was because you knew how she was.
“You could not possibly thought, as you said in your police interview, that she was simply taking a breath.
“You must have known that her body had gone limp after your assault on her. Before you walked to the car park entrance you must have seen how she was – hanging half out of the car.
“It must have been obvious to you as a trained police officer with extensive experience of casualties in traffic accidents that she was not breathing.
“In evidence you said you did not realise she was poorly. I consider that you appreciated that she was much worse than that.”
Jo Martin QC, defending, said Brehmer, from Hordle, Hampshire, was remorseful for his actions and told her after being acquitted of murder: “It doesn’t change anything. I am still responsible for Claire’s death.”
The trial heard evidence of Brehmer’s “womaniser” lifestyle, when he was dubbed a “man wh**e”, and had been cheating on his wife, also a police officer.
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 Brehmer.
She researched Brehmer on Facebook under a different name and became convinced he had had at least two other affairs.
Brehmer said that when Mrs Parry drove into the car park she was angry, and after she got into his vehicle she asked for his phone so she could look through his social media apps.
He said that at one point he stabbed his arm three times with a penknife but Mrs Parry “did not care”.
He said he demanded she get out of his car but she refused, so he first tried to pull her out before he “bundled” into the car to try to push her out, and his arm “must have slipped up in all the melee”.
Brehmer was seconded to the National Police Air Service based at Bournemouth Airport at the time of the killing.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder, and was acquitted of the more serious charge at trial.
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Married Dorset Police officer jailed for 10 years for killing lover
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