THE Police officer accused of murdering his nurse lover whom he’d been having an affair with for ten years claimed he “didn’t mean to do it” and he “loved her”, a court has heard.

The murder trial of Timothy Brehmer, 41, of Hordle in the New Forest, continued at Salisbury Crown Court on October 15.

Brehmer is accused of murdering his nurse lover Claire Parry, 41, of Bournemouth, at the Horns Inn pub car park in West Parley on May 9. He denies murder but admits manslaughter.

In his police interview, Brehmer claimed he was trying to get Mrs Parry out the car so he could go kill himself after the nurse texted his wife about the affair. Mrs Parry died of a brain injury due to compression to the neck.

However, prison officer Scott Stentiford of Exeter Prison, where Brehmer was staying while awaiting his trial, had a conversation with the defendant on July 3 and claims he told him he was trying to keep Mrs Parry in the car.

Mr Stentiford said Brehmer was doing a “shadow board” in a cupboard, a task to enable prison officers to determine if and what tool has gone missing, when they engaged in conversation.

The prison officer told the court: “He told me he was in there because he had an affair on and off for a number of years, he didn’t say how long, he just said years.

“He said that she was in the car with him and she was angry, she wanted to tell his wife what was going on.

“Brehmer didn’t think it was appropriate coming from her, he felt it more appropriate from him.

“He said as she went out, he grabbed her pocket to try pull her back but it wasn’t enough.

“He just said he put his arm around her neck to try and pull her back in.”

Mr Stentiford said this surprised him as prison officers are trained in a similar way to police officers and told to never put their arm around someone’s neck.

He added: “He told me it was an accident and he didn’t mean to do it. He said he swore it was an accident and he loved her and didn’t want to harm her.”

Joanna Martin, defending, disputed the details in Mr Stentiford’s statement and said the prison officer was “putting things into your own words” as his statement was written days after the conversation.

Ms Martin also asked: “Did he in fact say to you he was trying to get her out of the car, he was grabbing her trousers to try and get her out the car, he was trying to push her out the car?”

Mr Stentiford said he is “100 per cent” sure Brehmer said he was trying to keep her in the car.

“He was telling you he was trying to get her out the car, you have made an assumption throughout all of this,” Ms Martin said.

Forensic scientist Michael Wheelhouse examined artefacts from the scene such as the blood-stained clothes and stains in the car.

He was given three scenarios to analyse – Brehmer’s version of events that he tried to get Mrs Parry out of the car, Mr Stentiford’s version of events, or a “hypothesis” that Brehmer rendered Mrs Parry unconscious, inflicted knife wounds in his arm and then moved her body across the car.

Mr Wheelhouse said he couldn’t rule out any of the possibilities after examining the blood, however when questioned by Ms Martin, said more of the blood was accounted for in the first scenario, like the stains on the passenger window and in the sill of the door.

He added he couldn’t form definitive answers for any of the scenarios.

Brehmer denies murder, the trial continues.