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City banker faces sentence for killing cheating wife
14 Oct 2009
A top City banker who killed his unfaithful wife in a violent row will be sentenced today after being convicted of manslaughter.
Kate Ellerbeck, 46, died after a violent struggle with her husband at their £600,000 home in Enfield, north London, last November.
Neil Ellerbeck, 46, was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of lack of intent by an Old Bailey jury, which cleared him of murder.
Ellerbeck, chief investment banker at HSBC in Canary Wharf, discovered his wife was involved in a passionate sexual relationship with tennis coach Patrick McAdam and also suspected affairs with two other men.
Prosecutors alleged that he strangled her after her indiscretions had become "all too much" for him.
But he told the court that he had given her a "decent shove", pinned her down as she tried to attack him, and struck her after she bit his thumb.
He said that when he left the house after the row she was still alive, though panting and with blood on her lip, and when he returned she was lying at the foot of the stairs.
Ellerbeck called 999 and tried to revive her but it was too late.
At the time he killed his wife, the banker was working long hours as the City bore the brunt of the credit crunch and was drinking two bottles of wine a night.
Though he had a mistress himself he was said to have become "obsessive" about his wife's activities.
Realising he faced the end of the 14-year marriage, he feared the loss of his children and half of his £1 million fortune, and squirreled away more than £500,000 in secret accounts, the court heard.
