Man accused of killing wife's lover wanted him to 'leave her alone'

Dr Colin Shawcross, 58, was allegedly beaten to death with a pickaxe handle by Andrew Hill after his wife Julie told him she was leaving him for the married GP.

Hill, 49, told a Sheffield Crown Court jury how he spent 1,400 on new carpets and redecorated his home in a bid to keep Julie, a 47-year-old nurse.

He put a bid in for a personalised number plate for his wife and planned to buy a sports car for her.

After Julie told him her affair with Dr Shawcross was over, he said they talked about him giving up his hobbies to spend more time with her.

Hill obtained the doctor's mobile number and twice rang to reason with him, the second call lasting 30 minutes.

He told the court: "I wanted to know why he had to have my wife. I wanted her back. I implored him to leave her alone. I wanted him to go back to his wife."

The defendant, a telecoms engineer who had been married for 15 years, said of the GP: "He kept saying he was not a womaniser."

Hill discovered his wife was having an affair with Dr Shawcross in the summer of 2008. She left him for five days that November, but returned after he sent her a text message saying he was going to kill himself.

She was "frosty" towards him but he was determined to win her over.

He managed to track down Mrs Shawcross, who said she believed the Hills had an "open marriage". Hill told the court that was "not the case at all".

He dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief and said: "When she realised that we hadn't got an open marriage she seemed to accept that I was absolutely devastated."

Hill was obsessed with getting his wife to end the affair.

He said: "Julie told me 'I don't think I can give him up.' She said Dr Shawcross was going to write her into his will instead of his wife."

Having found out where the doctor was living after separating from his wife, Hill thought of confronting the GP and Julie but decided against it.

He then treated his wife to try and win her back. He told the court: "I was constantly wanting her to become happier with me and not have anything to do with Shawcross."

Hill wrote a series of letters on January 1, 2009, outlining his wife's affair. He intended to send them to health chiefs and a local newspaper but never posted them.

One read: "My hangover is not that easily sorted." The last few lines said: "By the time you are reading this letter my suicide will have taken place."

Asked why he wrote them he replied: "It was to try and hold onto Julie."

He showed the letters to his wife who was "taken aback" and she went to see Dr Shawcross alone for a walk in a park to "iron things out one way or the other".

When she returned, Hill said his wife declared: "It's over!"

Hill said: "She thought he was the hero in all this. She said he told her 'we can't have your husband killing himself and this being on your conscience.'"

Hill told the court: "It was finished between them. I was overjoyed. I could have forgiven her anything."

But just two weeks later, he discovered his wife's mobile phone bill and saw she had been ringing and texting the GP. He said: "It was obvious they were still seeing one another."

A few days later, Julie told her husband she was leaving him for Dr Shawcross.

Hill threw bath water at his wife and told their 12-year-old son: "She's wanting you to have a new dad." He then threw Julie's clothes into the street.

Hill claims he hired a "hardman" with an Irish accent for 500 to try and scare off Dr Shawcross but the plan went wrong and the doctor ended up dead.

The prosecution say Hill murdered the doctor then buried his body.

Hill, from the nearby village of Woodall, denies murdering Dr Shawcross.

The hearing continues.