A “gentleman farmer” who is accused of killing his wife and dumping her body in a septic tank admitted to the jury that he “very much regretted” having an affair.
Prosecutors claim that retired David Venables, 89, murdered his wife Brenda Venables and ‘got away with murder’ for almost 40 years.
At the old marital residence, Quaking House Farm, in Kempsey, Worcestershire, the remains of Mrs. Venables, 48, were discovered in the subterranean cesspool in 2019.
Prior to his wife going missing, Venables, then 49, reignited a “long-standing” romance he had been having with Lorraine Styles, his mother’s former caregiver, according to testimony presented before Worcester Crown Court.
He has previously asserted that his wife’s death might have been caused by Gloucestershire serial killer Fred West.
He said that Ms Styles, who also resided in Kempsey, became his “buddy” six years after he wed his wife in 1960.
When the pig farmer began providing Ms. Styles with rides home, she met him. Ms. Styles had initially worked at the family’s farm nursery, but she eventually became a caregiver for Venables’ mother and grandmother.
Timothy Hannam QC questioned Venables about whether or not the connection with Ms. Styles had a sexual undertone, and Venables responded, “Yes, which I very much regret.”
Venables, who is testifying for the first time today, earlier described to the jury how he met his ‘good-looking’ future wife in Droitwich Winter Gardens in 1957 while they were both 23 years old and attending a Worcester and Kidderminster Young Farmers club social.
We probably danced together, became friends with each other, and I believe there were typically refreshments available, he told the jury, so we joined forces and got to know one another.
There would be beverages. Typically, trifle and sandwiches.
When Mr. Hannam inquired as to what had “turned his head” in her direction, Venables responded, “She was usually quite pleasant.
“And she was always terrific company anytime you went out, and we just got along great together,” you said.
She was “extremely attractive” and “just all over appealing,” he continued.
The couple saw each other ‘once every 10 days’ while courting, mainly on evenings and at weekends, when he said they would go ‘to shows, go for a drive and a day out somewhere’.
Venables juggled time seeing Brenda with working on the family-owned Baynhall farm.
With his father – until his death in 1977 – and younger brother Peter, the family reared 3,000 pigs a year for bacon, had an acre of glasshouses, growing plants and vegetables, and a further 436 acres of arable and grass land.
Brenda’s home was in the village of Rushock, between Bromsgrove and Droitwich, he added, so he would also stop in ‘for breakfast’ on the way home from 4am trips taking produce from the farm to Birmingham market.
The couple were married on June 1 1960 at Brenda’s local parish church in Rushock, before honeymooning in Jersey for a week.
Venables’ father had given land at Quaking House Farm – which he had set aside to build his own retirement property – to the oldest of his two sons, Venables, to build a marital home.
The property, in Bestmans Lane, was finished shortly after the wedding and boasted a ‘magnificent view’ of the surrounding countryside, and the couple moved in in around February 1961.
Venables, who supervised the build, told the jury he had the septic tank built in the grounds of the house.
The trial, which is now in its third week, heard that before her death, Mrs Venables had become depressed by her husband’s ‘multiple affairs’ and the fact she had been unable to conceive.
She had visited both her GP and a consultant psychiatrist to help her deal with her mental health.
She reportedly told her psychiatrist Dr Richards, that she and her husband had not had sex since 1969 and were sleeping separately.
The court heard doctors tried to make appointments to see the couple together, but Venables repeatedly said he was ‘too busy’.
Despite this, when he was interviewed by the police, he claimed their marriage had been ordinary and that they were still sleeping together.
Dr Richards reportedly tried to have Brenda hospitalised some time before her death, saying she was depressed and needed treatment, but according to notes read out in court, the move was blocked by her husband.
Dr Richards called him a ‘typical farmer – displaying little to no affection to his wife, but showering praise on the family dog’.
Jurors were informed that Venables had a “long-standing affair”—behind his wife’s back—with Lorraine Styles, a former caregiver for his mother.
In a police interview, Venables acknowledged his 14-year relationship with Ms. Style but insisted it was not an affair.
It was fairly informal, so I wouldn’t call it an affair, he added.
Having sex with a woman for 14 years, the cop retorted, “I suppose she would agree that’s some form of relationship.” That can’t be casual.
Venables, however, claimed in today’s testimony that the connection had been “overplayed,” and he told police that he “never” intended to leave his wife for Lorraine.
In a witness testimony that was previously read to the jury, Ms. Styles, who has since passed away, said that she and Venables had an extramarital relationship that lasted 14 years, from the late 1960s until 1982.
She asserted that Venables had spoken about divorcing Mrs. Venables and had made a vow to leave his wife and move in with her in Worcester.
Was Lorraine Styles someone for whom you would have left your wife, Mr. Hannam questioned?
No, most certainly not, Venables responded.
Well, before then (his wife’s disappearance), I learned that she had such a violent temperament.
He had previously claimed this about Ms. Styles in court: “She was polite enough but she had an unpredictable personality.”
She would occasionally be pretty normal before becoming irritable and cranky.
He claimed there were “quite huge intervals” when he would not see or communicate with her, contradicting the assertion made by the prosecution that their relationship had been “long-standing.”
He claimed that they got in touch in late 1982, after Mrs. Venables vanished, when Ms. Styles showed up at the martial residence.
Venables remarked: “One day, she showed up at my door completely uninvited and said, “Now that you’re on your own, I can come live with you.”
“Well, that’s never going to happen, I remarked.
She actually verbally abused me a lot before hopping in her car and speeding down the driveway.
After his wife vanished in the first few days of May 1982, Venables claimed he did not see Ms Styles “for a long period.”
He denied, however, that they resumed their sexual relationship as Ms. Styles had stated, saying that when they did make contact, they “simply chatted about what had happened and that was all.”
Did Lorraine have any plans for your relationship, Mr. Hannam enquired?
She would have been delighted, of course, if Venables had accompanied her, but I had never intended to do that.
Additionally, he asserted that up until she disappeared, he and his wife still had a sexual relationship and shared a bed.
Kempsey, Worcestershire resident Venables denies murder. The trial goes on.