A mortgage broker who faced a "surging mountain of debt" had paid his wife's life insurance policy days before killing her, a court has heard.
Robert Hammond, 47, owed about £300,000 and "had eyes on the prize of Sian's life insurance payoff", Cambridge Crown Court was told.Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC told the court Mr Hammond "faced a surging mountain of debt and financial pressures". Three days later and just before 02:00 GMT, Mr Hammond rang 999 saying he had found his wife face down on the bed and not breathing, the court heard.Mr Paxton said Mr Hammond was told to perform CPR and claimed he did so, but a paramedic who attended that night "formed the view no CPR had been carried out".
Mr Hammond was wearing a wrist fitness device which showed a "spike in the defendant's heart rate at 11:56pm on that Sunday night which remained high until 12.19am", when it stopped working, suggesting it was taken off, the court heard.