'Gardener battered lover after taunts'

A gardener battered his lover to death after she taunted him about a rival, the Old Bailey heard today.

Peter Ling, 50, said he attacked Linda Casey after she claimed that he was not as good as her other lover.

He said his victim had made him feel inadequate and he "just went crazy", lashing out with whatever came to hand.

Between sobs he told police that "a chemical in the brain just kicked off" and he battered her and left her naked body in woods near Banstead, Surrey, last August.

Returning to her car he found her mobile phone which contained "explicit" images of her having sex. "She trashed my life," he said.

Ling's interviews with detectives after his arrest were read to the jury today.

He was arrested after his wife, Deborah, tipped off police that he had confessed to the killing of the mother of three.

Mrs Casey, 54, met Ling when he was among her students at horticultural evening classes at the Sutton College of Learning for Adults.

Ling, of Wallington, Surrey, denies murder.
The case continues.