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City banker ‘strangled wife’
Rashid Razaq and Benedict Moore-Bridger17 Nov 2008
A TOP City banker appeared in court today charged with murdering his wife, who was found strangled at their home.
Neil Ellerbeck, 45, a senior HSBC executive based at Canary Wharf, was arrested at the detached property in Enfield.
His wife, Katherine, 46, was pronounced dead at the house after paramedics and police were called to the cul-de-sac on Friday afternoon.
The couple's children, a 13-year-old son and daughter aged 10, are not thought to have been at the £650,000 four-bedroom home at the time and are being cared for by Mrs Ellerbeck's sister who lives nearby. The family were too distressed to talk. The couple had been married for 14 years.
Neighbour Geraldine Silver, 59, a yoga teacher, said: “They were a very quiet couple. Kate was lovely. Really sweet and caring. She was a full-time mum. Really devoted to her kids.
“I saw the ambulance and so went over to see if she needed anything. That's when I saw the police. It is dreadful. I was in a complete state of shock. There did not seem to be any problems.”
Mrs Silver said the “pretty” and “confident” mother was often seen taking the children to after-school activities and would always attend the annual street party, although her husband never did.
The family's next-door neighbour, Santosh Talwar, 60, said of Ellerbeck: “He was a stockbroker. He left home very early and came home quite late. He would take a train to the City.”
Mrs Talwar said: “They were a very nice couple. They have lived here for about nine years. They had two children. The girl was born here but the boy was already two years old.
“The boy went to grammar school. The dad coached him to get in. He came and told me My son got in'. He was so proud. He was a wonderful dad. Always taking the kids for outings and football — always taking them out.”
A family friend said Mrs Ellerbeck had been caring for her sick father, Gordon, until his death this year. Her mother, Maureen, died previously.
“I have known her since she was a child and saw her grow up. She was always a really friendly, chatty girl. The rest of the family were quite withdrawn but they were nice people,” added the friend.
Ellerbeck was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey in February after Enfield magistrates refused bail.
A Met spokesman said: We were called by the ambulance service at 12.10pm on Friday to a body found at an address in Enfield. A post-mortem examination took place at Hornsey mortuary on Saturday and gave the cause of death as asphyxiation and manual compression of the neck. A man was arrested at the scene, taken to an east London police station and charged with murder.”
Ellerbeck is a fund manager and chief investment officer of HSBC's global liquidity business. He had previously worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, Swiss private bank Lombard Odier, JP Morgan and Barclays.
He is responsible for overseeing the bank's worldwide team of investment managers and credit analysts.
He had been scheduled to address thousands of delegates and businessmen at the three-day conference in Barcelona last month where other key speakers included rogue trader Nick Leeson and Brent Callinicos, Google USA vice-president.
A biography produced by HSBC said Ellerbeck has a “distinguished track record”, entering the world of finance as an 18-year-old and going on to build a reputation for managing portfolios, asset-gathering and product development.
He joined the company from JP Morgan where he was also involved in asset management.
An HSBC spokesman said: “We can confirm that he was employed by us. Our thoughts are with his family.”
