A pensioner has been found guilty of murdering his estranged wife after she left him for an old flame she rekindled with via Facebook.
David Thomas, 74, killed 69-year-old Sheila Thomas on July 24 last year, a month after she left her husband of 50 years for a man she had known as a teenager.
The Old Bailey heard how mother-of-five Mrs Thomas had a fling with Victor Cassar in 1975 and they got together again after he sought her out on social media.
When the defendant found out, he had insisted his wife should move out of the family home in June 2018.
David Thomas later lay in wait, stabbed Mrs Thomas with a kitchen knife and bludgeoned her with a lump of wood at the family home in Herne Hill, south London.
Prosecutor Brian O’Neill QC told jurors it was a “planned killing”.
When police arrived at the scene of the crime, Thomas opened the door wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt and shorts, the court heard.
He told police that he had been stabbed during a fight and that Mrs Thomas was upstairs.
She was found in a bedroom with at least two stab wounds to the chest and head injuries. Giving evidence, Thomas told jurors he had “lost control” after his wife claimed he was not the father of two of their daughters.
She told him she “detested” having sex with him and that she should have left him years ago, the court heard. “She said ‘I will tell you something now you don’t want to know…you are not the father to two of your daughters,”‘ Thomas said.
A jury deliberated for nine and a half hours to find Thomas guilty of murder by a majority of 11 to one.
Judge Richard Marks QC remanded the defendant into custody to be sentenced on Thursday.
