Police release 999 call Stephen Searle made after murdering his wife (

And he’ll be out in a few years.

He's been sentenced to a minimum of 14 years. He won't necessarily get out at that stage if he can't convince a parole board that there is no chance of his being any danger whatsoever. So he'll be at least 78 and may not live to be released. Plus he'll have the life sentence for the rest of his life, which means he could go back to prison without trial for the slightest misdemeanour.

What exactly was beyond his control?

All that fuss. He couldn't control all those people making such a fuss about one silly murder.

What exactly was beyond his control?

Um, that his wife found out?

That's really all I've got.

That Mr Mountford is part of the issue here. Male violence against women and children is normalised in our society. He sees it as a domestic dispute that "got out of hand" - he said as much. Yeah it's all fun and games until someone actually DIES.

I can hardly believe this:

Mr Mountford, who was leader of UKIP at Suffolk County Council when Searle was a councillor, said: "I still regard Steve as fundamentally a decent man who has found himself in circumstances beyond his control.
"I'm not condoning it in any way but I was very, very sad to hear of Steve's conviction.
"I'm well aware domestic disputes can get out of hand but I feel equally sorry for both Steve and his now deceased wife."

He's EQUALLY sorry for a murderer and a murdered woman?

The situation was beyond his control? He had an affair with his son's partner, ffs. When discovered, he killed his wife. What exactly was beyond his control?

squishy it breaks my heart, so often these victims of make violence have a grainy photograph from a decade ago. Where are the happy pics their friends and family took on their phones?

I know... they weren't allowed to be in this situations. Fucking bastards. Fucking bastards like Searle.

Squishy you are right. Your post is spot on.

I am sitting here stunned at that tape. He sounds as though he’s pranged a neighbour’s car, rather than strangled his wife to death.
SquishySquirmy your post made me cry. So true.

"These things happen" ?!?

That actually did make me laugh. Not that I find it amusing, mind. But I laughed. In disbelief I guess.

The thing is - these things do happen in our culture. They happen every week or two, don't they? It's actually not that unusual. And that's part of the problem: that it's normal. These things DO happen.

Honestly, I don’t know what to say

999 op - "is it just the two of you in the house"
SS - "well, just the one of us now"

wtaf?!

We'd = wtf

So sad, that poor woman can't have stood a chance; he was bigger than her, stronger than her, and had been trained in combat. How the hell did he even think he could justify what he did as self defence? We'd is going on in the heads of those men expressing sympathy for him?

There was something about th e photo of her used in the BBC article that makes me feel quite sad too (I may be reading too much into it I know): a hastily taken selfie in a mirror, probably taken off Facebook by the media. I know some middle aged women who do not have any nice, happy recent photos of themselves. It's normally because at the kind of gatherings where people take photos, they're too busy running around after everyone else, and it wouldn't even occur to their partners to bother taking a photo of them. It's a sort of invisibility.

I'm not really sure what the motive would be for releasing it. But it is not a normal reaction compared with the many 911 transcripts there are out there where you can usually hear the shock, disbelief and fear in people's voices. To say this 999 call is chilling is an understatement. Maybe that's why.

Luke and Ryan Hart, whose father murdered their mother and sister, have spoken out against this saying how irresponsible it is for people to say it was a tragedy when it was Stephen's choice to murder his wife.

Also, he very much must have intended to kill her - a person passes out from strangulation after 10-15 seconds, it takes 2-3 minutes of continuous pressure to insure blood flow is reduced sufficiently to cause death. That's a very fucking long time for something to "just happen".

Unbelievable. 'Hello buddies'? What the fuck?! I'm so glad they released that, it really shows the evil bastard for what he is.

It's terrifying. What a complete monster to feel so little.

RIP Anne.

Holy fuck. That transcript is horrific

These sorts of things just happen:

• knocking over a glass of water on the table
• tripping over and falling down
• putting an expensive garment into the washing machine on too hot a cycle and it shrinks
• getting the wheel of a bike caught, leading to a crash

Murdering your wife is not one of these things

And shame on Bill Mountford for his nasty, misogynistic victim blaming attempt at minimising what happened

Despicable, violent murderer. Absolute danger to women. There’s no way he should be free to harm again We should keep an eye on this and make sure he doesn’t wheedle his way out of prison any time soon.

Also, Bill Mountford is excusing and justifying murder and is adding to a culture of violence against women.

I'm well aware domestic disputes can get out of hand Out of hand is saying things you don't mean or shouting and screaming, not killing someone!!! This statement normalises domestic violence and that's never OK, but worse that this came out of the mouth of a politician.

"I feel equally sorry for both Steve and his now deceased wife."
What, equally sorry for the woman who was violently killed by her husband, and for the husband who violently killed his wife? Really?

@bleedingbanshee he's a vile man but I though she was having the affair with the son's girlfriend not him?

Why would you not Google a thing like this before posting?

these things happen?!?

Good god. Dropping a plate and breaking it happens, not murdering your wife.

Horrific.

Yes, ther's precedent for this kind of release - I'll see if I can find the details, but it's happened more than once on conviction of parents murdering their DC.

Why I'm not sure about is why it is done. What does it really add to the crime report, or how does it serve the prevention of further crime?

No, it was him. She found out and he killed her.