The husband of a royal GP has been charged with her murder and remanded into custody after appearing in court. Dr Hannah Cain, 45, was found dead at her home in Fern Hill, Dersingham, Norfolk, in the early hours of October 4. The property is less than a mile from Sandringham House.
Court appearance and charges
Mark Cain, 45, also of Fern Hill, Dersingham, appeared at King's Lynn Crown Court via video link from jail on Thursday. Prosecutor Steven Ball said Cain is charged with murdering his wife between October 3 and the early hours of October 4 at their family home.
The court heard that the couple's three children, aged eight, 11 and 13, were upstairs during the incident. Two additional children, aged eight and 10, were staying over for a sleepover.
Details of the incident
Emergency services were called to the scene, where Dr Cain was found "unconscious and unresponsive". A post-mortem examination found she had suffered "blunt force injuries to the head" and "neck injuries consistent with compression to the neck".
Cain confirmed his identity at the start of the hearing. He was not asked to enter a plea and no bail application was submitted. Presiding judge Mr Justice Lickley ordered Cain to remain in custody until a plea hearing scheduled for December 3, tentatively set to take place at Norwich Crown Court. No provisional trial date has been established.
Background and tributes
An earlier session at Norwich Magistrates' Court heard that the ambulance service alerted police in the early hours of October 4, and Dr Cain was found in an upstairs bedroom "not breathing, not conscious".
Dr Cain, who practised under the professional name Dr Hannah Terry, appeared on the roster at Grimston Medical Centre. She worked within a group of medics routinely called upon to attend to royal family members in the vicinity. According to the website for her business Norfolk Sky Aesthetics, she had practised medicine for over 15 years and worked as a GP for eight. She described herself as a "caring and professional doctor" who maintained her GP duties while running her cosmetic treatment venture.
On Wednesday, her relatives paid tribute to her as "kind, generous and loving" and highlighted "the great care she took of all her patients".
