First picture of the 'spiritualist vicar' whose BBC make-up artist wife is missing

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Spiritualist David Chenery-Wickens was still being questioned by detectives yesterday over the disappearance of his wife Diane while other officers searched woodland behind their £500,000 cottage.

The 51-year-old reported Mrs Chenery-Wickens missing ten days ago, claiming she vanished on a visit to a hair salon in London.

It has now been disclosed that the couple, who married in 1997, were splitting up and he was planning to move in with girlfriend Kerry Lippett, 39, a married mother of two.

It is understood that the pair were leading separate lives under the same roof.

But Chenery-Wickens recently told his 48-year-old wife he wanted to sell the home they shared in Duddleswell, East Sussex, a move thought to have upset her.

One close friend said: "Diane was the kind of person who didn't want to show the world when things had gone wrong."

Diane Chenery-Wickens: Officers are searching woodland behind their cottage

Yesterday, the best man at their wedding, a former shipping broker who asked not to be named, said Chenery- Wickens had been a lorry driver who became "obsessed with a strange hokery-pokery."

Mrs Chenery-Wickens had been nominated for a BAFTA for her work on Dead Ringers. She had also worked on Casualty and Pride And Prejudice.

Yesterday, there was no sign of Mrs Lippett at her home in Crowborough, East Sussex. She met Mr Chenery-Wickens at a spiritualist church three years ago. She is now separated from her husband.

A police spokesman said: "We are questioning a 51-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder."