Hartshill husband murdered wife then tried to make killing look like a hanging

Ryan Timms, of The Green, Hartshill, has been sentenced to life with a minimum of 19 years in prison, Warwickshire Police said



A man who claimed to have found his wife 'hanging' has been imprisoned for her murder. Ryan Timms, of The Green, Hartshill, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 19 years today, December 16.

The police were alerted by paramedics to an incident involving a woman in cardiac arrest onMonday, July 31 last year. Despite the paramedics' efforts and her subsequent admission to hospital, she died four days later.

Upon their arrival at the scene, officers spotted several discrepancies in the 44 year old Timms' account. It was initially suggested that an assault had occurred upstairs, after which Timms supposedly moved his spouse's body down to the ground floor, according to the police statement.

Ambulance staff and the officers present considered it unlikely that Timms could have negotiated moving the body past obstructions on a particularly steep and confined stairway. Further undermining Timms' narrative, post mortem examination findings contradicted the idea of death by hanging and instead pointed towards the use of a "neck hold" as the more probable cause.

Warwickshire Police conducted a thorough inquiry, with the backing of specialist forensic analysis, culminating in the re-arrest of Timms on June 4 on suspicion of murder. He was convicted of murder after a trial at Warwick Crown Court reports Birmingham Live.