Chester lorry driver brutally killed wife before hanging himself

Mar 23 2011 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

A LORRY driver who brutally killed his wife before hanging himself left this note: ‘I, Paul Knowles, murdered my wife Gillian Knowles today at 2am’.

Paul Knowles, 50, described as a possessive man with a fiery temper, had discovered his wife was having an affair when he stabbed and suffocated her in their marital home at 59 Caughall Road, Upton, last May, a Chester inquest heard.

Police were called to the gruesome blood-stained scene after a note was found by neighbours on the front door written by Mr Knowles which read ‘Call the police’.

Officers came across Mrs Knowles’ body upstairs in the master bedroom while Mr Knowles was hanging from the loft hatch, just outside, with his arms strapped behind his back with a cable tie.

The inquest heard in 1991 Knowles had been jailed for the attempted murder of a man he had discovered having an affair with a previous partner. Knowles lured him to his home address where he stabbed and suffocated him to within an inch of his life but the victim escaped.

Mrs Knowles’ son Daniel McElroy, from a previous relationship, was one of the first to arrive at the horrific scene in Caughall Road on Wednesday, May 19.

He confirmed to the inquest that his mother, 51, a former regional sales manager for a pharmaceutical company, had informed him two weeks before her death that Paul had found out about her extra-marital relationship.

Daniel, a quantity surveyor, of Vicars Cross, said Paul, whom he had known for 10 years and ‘got on’ well with, then told him he had issued “certain threats” to the gentleman and had confronted his family. He also confirmed to the inquest that Paul had threatened to hit his mother with a baseball bat and that he was aware of previous incident in which she had suffered two black eyes.

He said: “I asked mum to come and live with us but she didn’t want to.”

Daniel had seen his mum on the Sunday, just three days before her death, when he was playing cricket and she had gone to make the tea when she “seemed OK”.

And just the day before the incident which led to her death he had played snooker with Paul, remarking only that he was “not very talkative”.

It was a warm day and the windows were open when next door neighbour Arnold Johnson, a retired security officer, heard screams coming from the Knowles’ house about 6pm on May 18 but assumed it was children playing on a trampoline across the road.

It wasn’t until the next day that he discovered the note on the door, prompting him to call police and Mrs Knowles’ son Daniel who was in nearby Capenhurst and went round to the house immediately.

He described the Knowles as ‘pleasant and considerate’ neighbours but had suspected an affair after seeing a male visitor but had “never heard any rows” and said during the afternoon before her death, the couple had been sunbathing together in the garden.

Neighbour Shireen Russell, whose house adjoined the Knowles, described the Knowles as seeming to have ‘quite a loving relationship’ and would see them holding hands ‘perhaps in the garden’.

But she did recall seeing a male visitor and about a month before Mrs Knowles’ death she heard what sounded like people “having sex quite loudly” upstairs next door. Later she saw Mrs Knowles holding hands with the man.

Then on the first May bank holiday she recalled a protracted heated row between Mr and Mrs Knowles in which she heard Paul Knowles “shouting and swearing’. He went away for a few days but returned looking unshaven.

Then on the evening of May 18, her children ran in from the garden shouting that they could hear screaming but then it went quiet although Mrs Russell thought she could hear Mrs Knowles whispering. She also saw Mr Knowles drive off only to return about 8pm. Unusually he closed all the curtains and blinds at the back of the house.

Mrs Russell added: “I went to bed and could hear slightly strange noises coming from the bedroom. I thought it was moaning and took it she was upset.

“If I thought for one minute something had been going on I would have rung the police but there was not enough evidence at that time.”

Later the neighbour heard a dragging noise coming from the next door bedroom which sounded ‘like something being rolled across the floor’.

DC Michelle Birkett of Cheshire police major investigation team, said detectives believe Mrs Knowles was attacked in the kitchen/living room area then was taken upstairs and placed on the master bed where she was covered and later smothered.

A two page note found in the bedroom written by Mr Knowles with “almost exactly” the same text saved on his i-Phone.

Police believe Mr Knowles was able to secure his hands behind his back with a cable tie before hanging himself so that he could not remove the noose.

Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg recorded a verdict of unlawful killing in the case of Mrs Knowles and suicide in the case of Mr Knowles, describing him “as a man in obvious turmoil’ who had ‘a darker side’ and ‘a fiery temper’. He said the couple’s relationship had been categorised by violence by Mr Knowles towards his wife. Despite sunbathing together during the afternoon ‘something occurred’ which sparked a terrible argument which led to Mrs Knowles’ death.

Afterwards Daniel and Phillippa McElroy, the children of Mrs Knowles, reacted to the verdicts: “Gillian, our mum and our friend is still deeply loved and missed. We are confident that she still watches over us, expressed through the sun that was shining at her funeral and again today.

“The last 12 months have been hard, but we have stuck together well and will continue to do so. We are pleased that this inquest is now over and allows us to look to the future with the thoughts and love of Gillian in our hearts.”