Mark Cain has appeared before a crown court charged with the murder of his wife, royal GP Dr Hannah Cain, who was found dead at their home near the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
Dr Cain, 45, was found dead at her address in Fern Hill, Dersingham, in the early hours of October 4. Mark Cain, 45, also of Fern Hill, appeared at King’s Lynn Crown Court by videolink from prison on Thursday.
Prosecution details the events
Steven Ball, prosecuting, said Cain is accused of murdering his wife on October 3 into the early hours of October 4 at their family home. He said the couple’s three children, aged eight, 11 and 13, were upstairs, and two other children, aged eight and 10, “were staying over for a sleepover”.
Emergency services attended and Dr Cain was found “unconscious and unresponsive”. A post-mortem examination recorded that she had sustained “blunt force injuries to the head” and “neck injuries consistent with compression to the neck”, he said.
Court proceedings and next steps
Cain spoke to confirm his name at the outset of the hearing. He was not asked to enter a plea and no application for bail was made. The judge, Mr Justice Lickley, remanded Cain in custody until a plea hearing on December 3, provisionally at Norwich Crown Court. A provisional trial date was not set.
An earlier hearing at Norwich Magistrates’ Court was told that the ambulance service contacted police in the early hours of October 4 and Dr Cain was “found in an upstairs bedroom not breathing, not conscious”.
Background of the GP
The Fern Hill address is just over a mile from Sandringham House, one of the royal residences of the King and Queen. Dr Cain, known professionally as Dr Hannah Terry, was listed as a member of the practice team at Grimston Medical Centre and served in a pool of doctors regularly on call for members of the royal family nearby.
According to the website of her business, Norfolk Sky Aesthetics, Dr Cain had been a qualified doctor for more than 15 years and a GP for eight. She described herself as a “caring and professional doctor” who continued her GP work alongside her cosmetics business. On Wednesday, her family described her as “kind, generous and loving” and praised “the great care she took of all her patients”.
