Pensioner ‘beat wife with saucepan then strangled her over hookworm obsession’

A pensioner hit his wife over the head with a saucepan before strangling her after becoming obsessed with the idea they were infected with the parasite hookworm, the Old Bailey has heard.

Brian James, 81, is accused of murdering Carol James, also 81, at their bungalow in Bexleyheath, southeast London, last Friday, November 15.

He phoned 999 shortly before 8.30am saying he ‘wished to report that he had just killed his wife’, prosecutor Nicholas Hearn told the court during a short hearing this morning.

Speaking to the operator, James ‘expressed concern that his home was infested with hookworm and that he believed both he and his wife were infected’, he added.

‘He said that despite this, his wife continued to go out,’ Mr Hearn went on.

The court heard ‘an argument ensued over his wife’s intention to attend a hairdresser’s appointment’.

James was said to have tried to ‘restrain her and stop her going’ by hitting her with a saucepan wrapped in a rag.

He went on to tell the operator that during the attack, his wife got hold of the saucepan and hit him over the head with it before he ‘took hold of her throat’, it was claimed.

Police rushed to the address and arrived while he was still on the phone to find Mrs James collapsed in bed.

She was declared dead there a short while later at 9.10am.

Mr Hearn said the provisional cause of Mrs James’s death was compression of the neck.

He said it appeared her husband had a ‘fixation’ with a health condition but there was no indication of hookworm infestation.

James was treated in hospital for a head injury before being taken to Lewisham Police Station and charged with murder.

He was deemed to be in an unfit state to attend a hearing before Judge Mark Dennis.

The judge set a plea hearing for March 10 and a trial of up to seven days from September 1 next year.

James was remanded into custody.

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