Scheming husband 'killed his wife for her £12,000 savings'

William Collis, 60, told friends that he and his wife Georgina Ryder, 56, had patched up their relationship and were going on a long trip around Europe.

But it was a lie and part of an elaborate plan to murder her, it is alleged. In fact he had killed the mother of his five children and dumped her body, the jury was told.

Days afterwards, the computer expert moved in with his lover 200 miles away, took a teaching job at a private school and allegedly started draining his wife's bank accounts.

Months later, when friends and family became suspicious that the couple had not returned from their holiday, police were alerted.

They arrested Collis, who admitted killing his wife but claimed he had done so in self-defence after she attacked him with a metal bar.

Yesterday Collis, dressed in a sharp silver suit, appeared at Preston Crown Court and denied murder.

Gordon Cole, QC, prosecuting, told the jury that the motive for Mrs Ryder's death was money.

"The plan for the defendant was not to go to Europe, but to go to Hertfordshire," Mr Cole said.

"It was the case that the defendant wanted to get his hands on the money and he did all he could to do so."

The court heard that Collis, then known as William Ryder, had a turbulent relationship with his wife and they had been separated for three years.

But in July last year he told friends and family that the pair were giving their relationship one last go.

He said he and Mrs Ryder were planning a tour of Europe in his campervan to help her recuperate from breast cancer.

But the couple never made the trip and instead he allegedly strangled Mrs Ryder in her home in Kirkby, Merseyside.

He then wrapped her body in a sleeping bag and drove more than 320 miles in the van to the shores of Ellary Loch - a remote lake near Ormsary, in Argyll, Scotland, where he dumped her body. He allegedly stole £7,000, which Mrs Ryder had received from the sale of their marital home, and took her cashcard and pin number, giving him access to another £4,500.

Collis then quickly moved in with his lover, Anne Farrell, who lived in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

Two days later he landed a job as an IT teacher at the £11,000-a-year Sherrardswood Independent School in the town.

The court heard that Mrs Ryder had filed for a divorce from her husband before her death, but a month after the killing Collis went to court to obtain a decree absolute, allowing him to finalise the separation.

He also changed his name. The killing went undetected until October, when the couple's daughter, Samantha, became suspicious and reported her mother missing.

Merseyside Police launched a manhunt for Collis, who was arrested at a port in South Wales on October 18 as he tried to board a ferry to Ireland.

When quizzed by detectives he confessed to the killing and directed police to his wife's body. The corpse was so badly decomposed Mrs Ryder had to be identified by dental records.

A post-mortem examination showed she had suffered a fractured neck consistent with strangulation.

The trial, which is expected to last for two weeks, continues.