by Lucy Buckland

lucy.buckland@essnmedia.co.uk

The trial of a gardener accused of murdering his lover for having another affair had to be halted because he was feeling unwell.

The trial of Peter Ling, 50, had to be stopped this morning (Friday) because he was too emotional to continue.

 

This afternoon jurors were told it would not be continuing because he was unwell.

Ling sobbed for 40 minutes as his interview with police, recorded after he was arrested on suspicion of killing Linda Casey, was read out at the Old Bailey this morning.

But it all became too much for Ling, of Taylor Road, Wallington, when he heard himself tell Detective Constable Andy Grimwood, how he had not meant to kill his lover.

In his interview, he said: "You are explaining me as some cold callous killer, that is not me."

"It was not cold and calculating I did not set out to kill her at all. It was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted some idea of where we were going. I did not mean to upset her, it wasn't at all like you were saying.

"But what can I say in my defence? I did not want it to come to this, I didn't want it to come to this."

A matron was called to console him and as he was lead from the court, he wiped tears from his eyes.

The Old Bailey has already heard How Ling battered his married lover to death and dumped her body in woodland after discovering she was having another affair

He repeatedly struck Mrs Casey, from The Drive, Cousldon, about the head and face with a rock after the couple had sex, jurors heard.

As the 54-year-old mother-of-three, from The Drive, Coulsdon, lay dying in woodland he covered her body with leaves, left her clothes in a neatly folded pile and fled the scene in her car, it was said.

The badly decomposed body of Mrs Casey was found five days later after Ling confessed.

Ling, who had been married to his wife Deborah for 23 years, discovered his lover was having a second affair after accessing her e-mail account.

Jurors were told he met Mrs Casey by arrangement on August 8 last year at the Ramblers Rest pub, in Outwood Lane, Chipstead, before they went to the woodland.

She met Ling when he was her student at horticultural evening classes at the Sutton College of Learning for Adults.

But Mrs Casey, who still lived with her estranged husband, Tony Wisbey, was also seeing a second man called Ian who her daughter said she was "besotted with".

Ling denies murder.

The trial continues.