Policeman tried to kill wife after her affair with former lover, court told

A POLICEMAN tried to kill his wife, the mother of his four children, after she had an affair with a lover from her schooldays who was traced through the Friends Reunited website, a court was told yesterday.

Hugh Needham, 42, had begged his wife to stay, even suggesting that they should get drunk, "fix a hose-pipe to the car" and kill themselves rather than split up, Inner London Crown Court was told.

But when his wife who now uses her maiden name, Laura Knox insisted the marriage was over, he armed himself with arazor-sharp boning knife and plunged it into her stomach, the jury was told. Fighting back tears, 37-year-old Ms Knox, a librarian, told the court how the family gathered next door at her parents' house for her mother's birthday party on May 26 last year.