Christopher Parry shot wife Caroline dead 'because she left'

Caroline Parry was shot dead in Seabreeze Avenue on 8 August 2013

A husband shot his wife dead because he could not accept she had left him, Newport Crown court has heard.

Caroline Parry was shot in the back at close range near her home in Newport last August.

Christopher Parry, 49, from Cwmbran, was described as a "controlling and dominant" individual who could not accept his wife was separating from him after years of unhappiness.

He denies murder but has admitted manslaughter.

Prosecutor Michael Mather-Lees QC said Mr Parry waited for his wife to leave her new lover's home on the morning of the shooting, before removing a semi-automatic shotgun from the boot of his car.

Mr Parry, a driver for the Celtic Manor Resort, then turned the gun on himself, he said, which left him with "substantial head injuries".

'Surveillance'

Newport Crown Court heard Mr Parry had been a "controlling" during the couple's 27-year marriage.

Mr Mather-Lees said: "Such was the state of the marriage she left and went to live with her mother, telling her husband she would never go back to him.

"But he could not accept the fact that his wife had left him after years of unhappiness.

"She later went to live with a man called Gary Bidmead who she had met before she left the marital home."

In the months before the shooting Mr Parry, who had a shotgun licence and kept three firearms at his Cwmbran home, kept his wife "under surveillance" and phoned her persistently, the jury was told.

Mr Mather-Lees claimed the shooting was a "carefully planned scheme" by a man "not prepared to let go".

"Parry later claimed it was his intention to kill himself in front of his wife - not shoot her," he said.

"If that was the case why did he have a semi-automatic with three cartridges?

"The answer is he was planning to kill her and kill her he did."

The trial continues.