AN ex-army serviceman used a dog lead to strangle his wife at their home in Wooburn Green, a court heard.
The couple had just spent Christmas together, but Marie McGrory then travelled to Scotland over New Year to continue an affair with another man, the prosecution said.
John McGrory, 46, denies murder at Reading Crown Court, though his lawyers have already indicated he admits manslaughter, jurors were told.
The court heard he had been complaining of depression before the incident on January 3.
He had known about the affair since October last year and his defence lawyers are likely to argue he acted under diminished responsibility or loss of self-control, jurors were told.
Scots-born McGrory had got into a row with Marie in the kitchen of their Holtspur Avenue home - the morning after she returned from seeing the other man.
McGrory, who was then working night shifts as a lorry driver, then strangled the 39-year-old with a dog lead, jurors heard.
He then called 999 and told the operator he had killed his wife, according to the prosecution.
Police rushed to the house and were let in by McGrory, who was wearing a T-shirt and boxer shorts.
When paramedics arrived they found the dog lead ‘embedded’ in Marie’s neck and rushed her to hospital, where she died the following morning, the court heard. The trial continues.
