Wife was into fitness and death was 'a shock'

A mother-of-two who was allegedly murdered by her husband was a keen runner who had recently completed a 10km (6.2 mile) event, a friend has told a court.

Sian Hammond's body was discovered at a house in Primes Corner, Histon, Cambridgeshire, on 30 October.

Her husband Robert Hammond, 47, was facing a "surging mountain of debt and financial pressures" and had paid off her life insurance policy arrears in the days before her death, Cambridge Crown Court was told.

A post-mortem examination indicated Ms Hammond was strangled. Mr Hammond denies murder.

Mr Hammond called the ambulance service at 01:50 GMT on 30 October and told the operator he had found his 46-year-old wife face down on the bed and not breathing.

Deborah Bevis, who first met Ms Hammond about 15 years ago when their children were attending the same school, told the court she was "into fitness".

"She did a 10k, she climbed Ben Nevis, she started running," the jury heard.

Mrs Bevis told them it was a "shock" when Mr Hammond texted her husband Alex at 16:04 on 30 October to say "Sian passed away last night in her sleep" and it had "been a tough day".

The couple went to see Mr Hammond on 2 November, she told prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC.

Mr Paxton told Mrs Bevis "He [Mr Hammond] said they had gone to bed but you don't know what time that was.

"He said he and Sian had a cwtch - it's a Welsh word for cuddle - and James told you he had sex with Sian and he described Sian as like a gym bunny and that Sian had used it as a workout."

Mrs Bevis replied: "Yes, I think he said that."

The prosecutor asked Mrs Bevis if she had asked any questions about this, and she said "it didn't seem appropriate at the time".

Mr Paxton asked if it was "normal for Sian previously or James to discuss their sex life", and Mrs Bevis replied "no".

She told defence counsel Karim Khalil KC Mr Hammond was a "funny, sociable nice man", and she agreed with him that Ms Hammond had "never indicated they were under any financial strain" nor "any strain between her and her husband".

Mrs Bevis told the court Ms Hammond would occasionally take diazepam "if she was flying", but did not know if she would take it if anyone else was flying - one of the Hammonds' teenage children was flying home that day.

Mr Hammond said his wife "doesn't get prescribed them [diazepam] - her mother gets them for her", the court had heard previously.

The trial continues.

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