Relief for family as remains at farm identified

The family of Kate Prout, who was murdered by her husband four years ago, have spoken of their relief and say they can finally lay her to rest after police confirmed they had found her remains.

A Gloucestershire Police spokesman said: “I can now confirm that the body recovered from Redhill Farm, Redmarley, yesterday afternoon has been formally identified as that of Kate Prout.

“The identity of the deceased was confirmed through the use of dental records.”

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Mrs Prout’s older brother, Richard Wakefield, said the years since she went missing in 2007 have been like a “prison sentence” for him and his wife, Linda, after Adrian Prout refused to admit to the murder.

Last week Prout, 49, who was convicted of his wife’s murder in February last year, dramatically confessed to killing her, took officers to an area of woodland on his £1.2m farm in Redmarley, Gloucestershire and revealed where he had buried her.

On behalf of Mrs Prout’s family, Mr Wakefield, 61, who lives near Stroud, said they could now move on from the traumatic events of the last four years.

“We’ve been like prisoners. It’s been like a prison sentence for us, having this over our heads all this time,” Mr Wakefield said.

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“But now, that relief has come, so hopefully when we get Kate buried we can all get on in our lives.”

Prout’s admission came to his fiancee, Debbie Garlick, during a prison visit last week after he failed a lie detector test.

Ms Garlick told ITV Westcountry: “He just confessed.”

Asked what he said, she replied: “I am sorry, I did ...”

Ms Garlick is believed to have then told police about the confession.

Mr Wakefield said when they heard the news they were wary of believing it.

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“We were shocked at first and we weren’t quite certain whether it was the truth or not due to the lies he’d told in the past,” he said.

When asked how they felt towards Ms Garlick, Mr Wakefield said: “She is now in a similar position to us. She had originally been behind Adrian but now she’s going to have to face the truth, and something she didn’t expect at all.”

Police used specialist forensic experts and cadaver dogs, trained to locate decomposed bodies, in the search which started on Monday for the 55-year-old former teacher at Cobhill woods.

Prout had shown officers an area of 300 square yards (250 square metres) on Redhill Farm but was unable to give the exact location.

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“We never had any doubt that Adrian killed her. I knew straight away after the first week that there was something drastically wrong, why Kate wasn’t there,” Mr Wakefield said.

“We didn’t know how long it would take to bring her back to us, if at all. We now feel relieved to have Kate back and so that we can put her to rest at last.”