‘Man w**re PC’ jailed for 10 years for killing one of his mistresses
A married police officer who killed his long-term lover after she revealed their affair has been jailed for 10-and-a-half years.
Timothy Brehmer, 41, broke mother-of-two Claire Parry’s neck after she sent a text message from his phone to his wife, saying: ‘I am cheating on you.’
The former Dorset Police constable claimed the married nurse, 41, accidentally suffered the fatal injury while he was trying to push her out of his Citroen car so he could drive away and kill himself.
Brehmer, from Hordle, Hampshire, was cleared of murder by a jury following a trial at Salisbury Crown Court, but had previously admitted Mrs Parry’s manslaughter.
The judge, Mr Justice Jacobs, 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.
‘The evidence from the pathologist was that those injuries which she described as “severe” on a scale of mild, moderate or severe resulted from the application of significant force to the neck for a period of a minimum 10 to 30 seconds and possibly longer.
‘She said it was difficult to envisage a situation where a struggle in the car imparted the necessary degree of force or could explain the extent and severity of the neck injuries.’
In a victim impact statement read to the court following the verdict, Mrs Parry’s husband, Andrew, also a police officer, called Brehmer ‘the worst kind of thief’.
He said: ‘He’s stolen a mother, a wife and daughter. Claire meant so much to so many people.
‘He has robbed our children of a million hugs and kisses from their mummy. It is simply impossible to quantify what he has taken from us. So much can never be replaced.’
Mr Parry added: ‘It is impossible to know exactly what has been stolen from our children, their children will never know their grandmother.
‘There will be an empty space at the table this Christmas, this empty table space will echo into the future of Christmases, birthdays, weddings.
‘Brehmer hasn’t left a hole in our lives, a hole has edges – a beginning and an end – Brehmer has left a gaping chasm in our lives that will stretch on for eternity.’
Mrs Parry’s parents, Philip and Jane, said their daughter’s death was ‘heart-rending and tragic’.
They said: ‘For parents to lose a daughter to violence is one’s worst nightmare. To have our daughter taken from us in this way is devastating.’
The statement added: ‘Claire’s violent sudden death has left a chasm of deep, deep emotional sadness and loss in our family.
‘Claire’s children now have to go through their lives knowing this man took the life of their mummy.
‘They will go through life’s firsts not being able to share their triumphs and disasters with their mummy. For us as their grandparents this is a bitter, bitter pain.
‘This man has caused devastating changes to our lives and the consequences in which we will always live with and suffer.’
The court heard that Brehmer, whose wife was also a police officer, and Mrs Parry had been having an affair for more than 10 years.
Brehmer – described in court as a ‘womaniser’ – said he had planned to kill himself because of the consequences to his own family of their affair being revealed.
In the days before her death, Mrs Parry had been in a ‘fragile’ state, believing her marriage was ‘falling apart’ and becoming convinced Brehmer had had at least two other affairs.
The court heard she set up a fake Facebook page to trawl through Brehmer’s past and had also spoken with another police officer, Kate Rhodes, who had an affair with the ‘man w**re’ in late 2011 who made her see him‘in a very different light’.
Brehmer said that when Mrs Parry drove into the car park of the Horns Inn pub in West Parley, Dorset, on May 9 this year she was angry and 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’.
Brehmer told jurors he demanded she get out of his car but she refused.
After first trying to pull her out, he told the court he ‘bundled’ into the car to try to push her out, and his arm ‘must have slipped up in all the melee’.
A post-mortem examination concluded Mrs Parry, from Bournemouth, had died from a brain injury caused by compression of the neck.
At the time of the incident, Brehmer was seconded to the National Police Air Service based at Bournemouth Airport. He has since been sacked by Dorset Police.
Defending, Jo Martin QC said Brehmer 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.’
She added: ‘Mr Brehmer pleaded guilty to the offence which is one indication of remorse. His remorse is genuine and will live with him long past any sentence this court imposes.’
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