A jealous husband has been cleared of murdering his wife with a prohibited firearm after discovering her secret affair. David Leeman, 60, admitted shooting Jennie Leeman five times with a semi-automatic pistol at close range in a barn on their former shared farm in rural Devon, but claimed he was not in control of his thought processes at the time. He was convicted of manslaughter and will be sentenced on Friday.
Exeter Crown Court heard that Mrs Leeman, who had two sons and two daughters with the defendant during a 20-year relationship, started seeing another man, Norman Laramy, 40. Leeman discovered the affair six days before he killed his wife at the farm near Barnstaple in north Devon. He claimed he heard voices in his head in the moments leading up to the death and that anti-depressants he had been taking impacted his mental faculties.
Experts were divided on whether the dosage Leeman had been taking was sufficient to cause his behaviour on the day he shot his wife in July last year. Outside court, a spokesman for Mrs Leeman's family expressed disappointment, stating: 'No one has the right to take another person's life. We, Jennie's family, feel disappointed and that justice has not been done for such a terrible thing that David Leeman has done to our wonderful daughter, sister and friend to so many people.'
There was a gasp from the public gallery as the jury returned a verdict of not guilty to murder, with Leeman appearing to fall from his standing position in the dock to his seat, where he was supported by two security guards. Justice Butterfield said Leeman would be sentenced for manslaughter and possession of a prohibited weapon.
