A jury is deliberating whether a scorned husband, on trial for plotting to murder his Russian wife, actually intended to kill himself while she watched after being plagued with depression.

Steven Hellewell, 50, of Gorse Close, Tadworth, is standing trial at Guildford Crown Court for soliciting to murder his wife, Elena Hellewell, 48, also from Tadworth.

It is alleged, in December 2012, Mr Hellewell, who met his wife on a Russian dating website, asked his estranged son, Kerry Lee Hellewell, to kidnap his wife so that he could kill her using cable ties and tape to tie her up.

After marrying in 2002, the court heard that the couple broke-up and reconciled a number of times before Mrs Hellewell left him for good in February 2012.

Mr Hellewell has contested that he did not intend to kill his wife, who he said he still loves, but wanted to kill himself "in her arms".

Police arrested him on December 17 last year - the day his son arrived back at Tattenham Corner after tipping them off about his father's plans.

In his closing statement to the court this morning, July 8, Deepak Kapur, prosecuting, said that Mr Hellewell could not accept that the relationship was over and intended to kill her, worrying that she might also want a family inheritance he was due.

 

Addressing the jury, Mr Kapur said: "You’ve seen the knives, the hammer, the cable ties and the quantities of tape. 

"Had Kerry Lee Hellewell gone along with the plan, with what Steven Hellewell had intended, Elena Hellewell would have been dead."

He added: "On 6 December it started to dawn on him that the relationship was not now to be resurrected and around this time we have heard about the inheritance that was playing some part on his mind. 

"This was used to motivate Kerry Lee in joining in the campaign he had by this time created."

Mr Kapur said that the defendant, "a controlling, demanding and manipulative" man, wanted "Elena Hellewell grabbed and put in the back of a car and wanted to finish the job himself".

'He had enough pain killers to kill an elephant'

He said that Steven Hellewell’s argument that he intended to kill himself does not ring true as he had a "history of suicide attempts" and had conducted extensive internet research on suicide, but had never gone through with the act.

He added: "He had enough [tablets in his possession] to kill an elephant. 

"If he really wanted to, there would be nothing to prevent him from taking 20 or 30 tablets.

"According to witnesses, it was all attention-seeking."

But Yogain Chandarana, defending, said that Mr Hellewell did "intend to grab her, put gaffer tape around her mouth and tie her hands together", but to "take her back to the house and kill himself".

He told the jury: "If you think in your mind that he might have wanted to kill her, that he maybe, probably or possibly did, that is not enough because we have to be sure.   

"If you think it was possible or probable that he wanted to kill himself, or that he maybe wanted to, can you be sure of the Crown’s allegation?"

He added: "If he intended to kill himself, you can't be sure that he intended to kill her."

Depression was akin to Winston Churchill's 'black dog'

Mr Chandarana made reference to "what Winston Churchill described as his black dog - depression" and used the metaphor throughout his statement to convey Mr Hellewell’s mental state.

He said that Elena Hellwell had not mentioned to the police, but had admitted during cross-examination, "that Steven Hellewell had said to her in October that he wanted to die in her arms".

The barrister said that although witnesses said that Mr Hellewell had said several times that he wanted to kill himself, they "switched off and ignored him", which does not mean he did not intend to do so.

He said: "If there was really any intention to kill he had every opportunity to do it. 

"What his intention was was to kill himself in her presence and that’s why he had to come up with this idea of grabbing her." 

Mr Chandarana said that a "suicide bag" on Steven Hellewell's dining room table, containing tablets, also contained envelopes with names on them and were intended for suicide notes.

He added: "Think of this black dog that is eating away at Mr Hellewell’s mind and it’s getting bigger and bigger.

"It’s barking away at him, ‘kill yourself, kill yourself’, it’s getting bigger by the moment."

He said that Kerry Lee Hellewell, who lives in the Isle of Wight, had been asked by his father to grab Elena Hellewell, not kill her, but that the son had "convinced himself" that he wanted her dead.

He said Kerry Lee Hellewell’s act of coming to Tattenham Corner and asking his father to transfer money for his travel fare, before calling the police, suggested he had "agreed to grab her not kill her" but that he later convinced himself that it was the latter.

Mr Hellewell cried and shook his head as the statements were made.

The jury went out at 3pm to consider their verdict.

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