An 89-year-old pig farmer who brutally murdered his wife and stored her rotting body in his septic tank for years has been jailed for life after he tried to blame the murder on serial killer Fred West.
In a lengthy trial at Worcester Crown Court, jurors heard how David Venables butchered his 48-year-old wife Brenda so he could run off with his secret lover in 1982.
Brenda’s grisly remains lay undisturbed for 37 years in the putrid tank beneath Quaking House Farm, in Kempsey, Worcestershire and were only discovered in 2019 by the new owners of the property.
Venables, who has previously claimed Gloucester serial killer Fred West may have been responsible for his wife’s death, told the trial he searched in vain for her after waking up to find her missing on May 4 1982.
Describing the day she vanished, Venables said he had woken up to find his wife not in bed and thought she must have gone to make a cup of tea.
He said: “I went to have a look. She had just disappeared. I felt perhaps she had gone to see friends. There was no sign of her anywhere.”
He also intimated that Brenda had been ‘depressed’ and that he thought she had likely committed suicide in the tank without his knowledge.
