Murder-accused 'lied that husband took own life'

A woman killed her husband before making a "desperate" 999 call 20 minutes later to tell emergency services he had taken his own life, a court has been told.

Amy Pugh, 34, played the part of a "concerned" wife when she made the call on 22 March, 2022, prosecutors said.

Her husband and father-of-three Kyle Pugh, 30, was found at their family home in Newport, Shropshire before dying in hospital the next day, the jury heard.

Ms Pugh, of Stafford Road, Wolverhampton, denies a charge of murder and is on trial at Stafford Crown Court.

The trial was told the couple had had a "volatile, turbulent and abusive" relationship and they had separated at the time of the alleged attack.

Prosecutor Julian Evans KC said their relationship would involve physical violence to each other and was often fuelled by drink or drugs.

Mr Pugh was in a new relationship with another woman at the time of the attack, but was visiting his children at the family home in Aston Drive that he had shared with the defendant.

The pair got into an argument that ended in the violence, Mr Evans told the court.

"It was violence that involved Amy striking Kyle in the face and he struck her back, but it didn't stop there," the jury heard.

"It involved Amy overpowering Kyle, she gained the upper hand over him, she was able to subdue him and deliberately compressed his neck by some means, whether that be a chokehold, strangulation or a ligature.

"It was violence directed at the neck and violence that was unlawful."

Mr Pugh suffered compression to the neck and fractures to the structure of the neck, as well as a fractured nose and eye socket.

Paramedics were able to restore his pulse, but he died the following day in hospital.

The prosecution said that after initially calling her father, Ms Pugh called the emergency services and told them her husband had hanged himself.

Mr Evans said: "She was plainly heard shouting, 'Kyle, wake up, why have you done this?'."

But he said this scenario "was a complete fiction" and Ms Pugh had lied "deliberately and with calculation".

Mr Evans said that while Mr Pugh did have a history of self-harm and attempts to take his own life, he had sent messages to his girlfriend, his dad and his friends that evening making plans to see them that night.

In a police interview Ms Pugh said she discovered her husband when she went out the back door to let the dog out and claimed she dragged him into the house and tried to wake him up by slapping him in the face, the court heard.

The trial continues.

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