Man cleared of murdering his wife

A man was today cleared of murdering his wife after a drunken night out.

A jury took 88 minutes to find Daniel Lipski, 28, not guilty of murdering wife Aleksandra after a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

He was also cleared of manslaughter after Mr Justice Lloyd Jones asked the jury to consider an alternative charge.

Aleksandra, 27, was found dead in a pool of blood at the flat the couple shared in Newport, South Wales, in May 2008.

She suffered one fatal stab wound to the chest close to her heart. Her discarded wedding ring was found under a table.

The couple - who married in December 2007, two-and-a-half months after meeting - had been out with her twin sister, Arga Kaczmarska, and her partner.

The court heard the victim and her sister had to be restrained when they fought and shouted at each other that night.

Mr Lipski, who moved to the UK from Poland in 2000, later saw his wife make a stabbing motion with a knife in her right hand, the jury was told.

The prosecution said the defendant told a friend hours before his wife's death he was fed up with her behaviour and intended leaving her.

But Mr Lipski told the jury that at the time of her death the couple had been married five months and loved each other.