Fatal attraction started with colleagues meeting for coffee

They met at the endoscopy unit of Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital, but grew closer after Mrs Hill left that job in January 2008 to begin working at the Northern General Hospital.

Even before her husband told her about the affair, the change in him was clear to see, said Dr Carol Shawcross.

She said: "He'd always been a really smart dresser, but he began wearing casual clothing such as stonewashed jeans, cargo pants, 'hoodies' – the sort of clothing he ridiculed his own sons for wearing."

At around the same time, she said, he shaved off his moustache and became "obsessed with looking younger".

During a holiday in Belgium, the GP told his wife that he had a "female friend", but said he was not having an affair.

"He told me his friend was Julie Hill and they met for coffee," Dr Shawcross said. "This shocked and hurt me as I thought we had a very happy and solid marriage.

"Colin did say he didn't want to leave me. When I found out they were still meeting I told him I couldn't cope with this and asked him to move out of the family home, to give us breathing space."

It was then, in August 2008, that Dr Colin Shawcross moved into a house on Ashley Grove in Aston, arranged by Mrs Hill.

In October, Julie Hill told her husband she was leaving him to be with Dr Shawcross. However, she only left for a weekend and returned home to Walseker Lane when Hill threatened suicide.

When she tried to leave again, on January 23 last year, he threw her possessions out of the house before driving to Dr Shawcross's home and beating him to death.