Accusedhusband'seen withGP's Jaguar'

THE jilted husband accused of brutally killing Sheffield GP Colin Shawcross admitted being with the doctor’s Jaguar on a secluded track shortly after the GP was attacked, a court heard.

Andrew Hill, 49, from Rotherham, was spotted by a police dog handler at remote fishing ponds in Aston, with the car, about three-and-a-half hours after Dr Shawcross was beaten to death at his nearby home in Ashley Grove.

Hill told the officer that the Jaguar was his and he had stopped on the darkened lane as he had run out of petrol. It was only when the constable began work the following day that he realised Hill’s alleged involvement in the attack on Dr Shawcross.

It is alleged that Hill murdered the well-respected GP after his wife Julie told him on January 23 last year that she was leaving him for Dr Shawcross, with whom she had been having an affair.

They argued and Mrs Hill spent the night with a neighbour. It is alleged that Hill then went to Ashley Grove, beat Dr Shawcross to death with a pickaxe handle and used the doctor’s Jaguar to transport the body to Loscar Woods, Rotherham, where he used his skills as a telecoms cable layer to bury it.

When Hill was apprehended by police at his home in Walseker Lane, Woodall, the morning after Dr Shawcross was killed, he was told why he was being arrested and replied: “Colin? I’d give him a slap if I knew where he was.”

Roger Jepson, of Ashley Grove, told the court yesterday that he heard “shouting”, “thudding” and “murmuring” noises on the night of January 23 and looked out of his bedroom window to see a man beating a long stick towards the ground.

He didn’t see anyone else, presumed the man was drunk, and went to sleep. Mr Jepson said: “I didn’t know what to think. We’re not used to anything happening in our area.”

Hill denies murder. The case continues.