Retired farmer found guilty of wife’s murder after body found in septic tank

David Venables, 89, convicted of 1982 killing of Brenda Venables, whose body was found 37 years later

A retired pig farmer who tried to blame Fred West for the 1982 disappearance of his wife has been found guilty of murdering her and hiding her body in a septic tank.

Police found the body of Brenda Venables, 37 years after she went missing, in the septic tank of the farmhouse she had shared with David Venables, 89.

The pensioner was convicted by a 10-2 majority on Friday at Worcester crown court after a month-long trial.

Venables was arrested after bones were found during work to empty the underground chamber of the tank near Quaking House Farm near the Worcestershire village of Kempsey in July 2019, six years after he sold the property for nearly half a million pounds.

During the trial, his legal team said West had links to the area where the couple lived, where Brenda disappeared in May 1982.

They also claimed she may have left her marital home and “either killed herself or met with or encountered someone who wished her harm”.

But the jury of seven women and five men deliberated for almost 17 hours over four days before convicting Venables of murdering his wife on either 3 or 4 May 1982, in order to be with a lover.

At the start of the trial, prosecutor Michael Burrows QC said Venables had “got away with murder” for nearly 40 years. Dismissing Venables’ defence as preposterous, Burrows said: “The truth, say the prosecution, is that it was David Venables who killed her.

“He wanted her out of the way – he wanted to resume his longstanding affair with another woman, Lorraine Styles.

“He knew about the septic tank in its secluded location. It was for him almost the perfect hiding place.”

Burrows said that by 1981, Styles had “doubts” about the on-off relationship, but that the farm owner rekindled the extramarital affair months before his wife vanished.

Venables, described by one witness at the trial as a smartly-dressed “typical gentleman farmer”, told the jury he woke up on the morning of 4 May 1982 to find his wife, then aged 48, had disappeared.

After the murder, the court heard, Venables appeared calm to those who knew him.

The court was told the pensioner informed police after his arrest in 2019 that he believed West may have killed Brenda, who had been diagnosed with depression and was described by relatives and friends in court as a kind, hospitable and friendly woman.

Trial judge Mrs Justice Tipples described the facts of the case as “tragic” as she advised the jurors that they could seek support if they had been affected by dealing with the case.

Venables was remanded in custody and faces a mandatory life sentence when he appears by prison video link next Wednesday.

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