Millionaire farmer ‘got stuck in mud’ claim wife and lover accused of his murder

Angela Taylor and lover Paul Cannon are accused of murdering 69-year-old Bill Taylor

Mr Taylor's disappearance came shortly after an arson attack on his Land Rover (Google Street View)

A millionaire farmer died after going to a picnic spot and getting “stuck in the mud”, his wife’s lover has claimed during a murder trial.

The decomposed remains of William Taylor, known as Bill, were found by a fisherman on a secluded riverbank near his home of Harkness Hall, in Gosmore, Hertfordshire, in February – eight months after he was last seen alive.

His disappearance came shortly after an arson attack on his Land Rover and only two days before his birthday.

The landowner’s body was discovered waist-deep in boggy ground near a ceramic teacup, some rope, a bottle of Baileys liqueur, and the remnants of a corn on the cob, St Albans Crown Court has heard.

His estranged wife Angela Taylor and her lover Paul Cannon, a digger driver, are accused of murdering the 69-year-old.

Jurors have started considering their verdicts after a two-month trial.

Hundreds of violent WhatsApp messages between the pair, some of which discuss seriously harming Mr Taylor in graphic detail, reveal the couple’s “bitter, pervasive hatred” of the cattle farmer, who was “implacable” in refusing to grant his wife of more than two decades a divorce, prosecutor John Price QC has said.

But Michael Magarian QC, defending Mr Cannon, has suggested the teacup and other items indicate Mr Taylor may have “gone to that spot like a picnic, almost” and got stuck in the mud by himself.

He added: “That’s the rather banal answer to this case.”

Judge Michael Kay QC sent the jury of eight women and four men out to begin briefly considering the case on Thursday afternoon before sending them home to return on Friday.

He said: “What are the possibilities as to how William Taylor died?

“Suicide has been mentioned. There is some evidence he was prone to depression and this was made worse by family squabbles and his tinnitus.

“Accidents or natural causes, like a heart attack. There is evidence the area he was found was known to be boggy, machinery and people have got stuck there.

“You also have to consider when and why Mr Taylor chose to walk to the river and climb over the barbed wire fence with a bottle of Baileys and the cup – is that in fact what he did?

“Or has there been an amateurish attempt to make the scene appear as if there has been a suicide or accident?”

In response to sexually graphic and violent messages exchanged between the pair, Mr Magarian said: “Some people express themselves more extremely than others.”

“Death threats are common currency” in society today, he added, citing those against MPs.

“They don’t describe a coherent plan to murder.”

Determining the precise cause of Mr Taylor’s death was not possible owing to the advanced stage of decomposition, experts told the court.

Mr Cannon and Ms Taylor, both of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, also deny an alternate charge of conspiracy to murder and a further charge of arson over Mr Taylor’s partially torched Land Rover.

A third defendant, Gwyn Griffiths, 60, of Folkestone, Kent, denies a charge of conspiracy to murder after he allegedly discussed hiring a hitman with Mr Cannon. The trial continues.

Additional reporting by Press Association