City broker's wife arrested after he dies in shooting

Paramedics fought desperately to save Simon Woodward, but the 42-year-old financier died in a bedroom of the family's pretty country home.

Last night his wife Karen, 37, was being questioned by police about the death of the father-of-two.

Police and paramedics went to the cottage in the village of Fenstanton, near Cambridge, late on Thursday night after reports that gunfire had been heard.

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The couple, both shooting enthusiasts, had only recently got back together after a separation in an effort to rekindle their 13-year marriage, according to villagers.

A close shooting colleague of Mr Woodward said: "Karen had recently moved back in with Simon. I think they were trying to give their marriage another go. He was going to tell us all about it at a shoot this weekend."

Mr Woodward, who worked in London while his wife remained at home, was a keen member of a local shooting syndicate which met nine times a year.

The weekend shoot organised at nearby Fen Drayton has been cancelled following his death.

His wife, a keen horsewoman who kept her horse at a local stables, was described by locals as a lively and sociable woman.

Until last summer she worked as a barmaid in one of the village pubs, the George, and is believed to have had a brief relationship with a local man after her marriage break-up.

Police ballistics and forensics experts were yesterday examining the death scene inside the whitewashed cottage where the Woodwards lived with their children, who are aged eight and four.

Firearms experts will try to establish how the shotgun, which may be Mr Woodward's own weapon, was fired.

A postmortem was being carried out last night.

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