ALLEGED Suffolk wife murderer John Walker today said a troubled childhood, had led to his desire to have the perfect family life.Walker 66, told the Ipswich Crown Court jury he was "seriously bullied" as a child at St Johns Church of England School and Northgate Grammar School in Ipswich.

ALLEGED Suffolk wife murderer John Walker today said a troubled childhood, had led to his desire to have the perfect family life.

Walker 66, told the Ipswich Crown Court jury he was "seriously bullied" as a child at St Johns Church of England School and Northgate Grammar School in Ipswich.

He said he found it very difficult to make friends and when his one close friend moved away he felt "very lonely and isolated".

Walker said he and his wife Mrs Walker moved to Melton and then to Great Bealings in the 1970s where they brought up their children Jane and Adrian at their cottage in Lodge Road.

"I spent a huge amount of time with the children and Glenda. The family was the focus of my life," said Walker who worked for a German chemical company until he retired at the age of 56.

He said he introduced Jane and Adrian to sailing, wildlife, swimming and tennis and joined a number of clubs himself to extend their social lives.

"I joined clubs to fulfil our (his and Mrs Walker's) agreed objectives to create a social atmosphere for the family which we wished we'd had had as children," added Walker.

Walker said his relationship with Mrs Walker became "strained" when their children left for university. He said he tried to find interests they could share together such as bowls and ballroom dancing. "Unfortunately this did not really bring us together, she did not want to do the bowls. The dancing I was so disappointed about, that she did not seem as interested as me," he said.

"Our relationship by the middle of the 1990s was strained because I did not find this fulfilment I was looking for, for both of us to share."

Walker said Mrs Walker moved to a different bedroom because she said he snored and she encouraged him to dance with other partners when they went ballroom dancing.

The court heard that at times during their marriage, Mrs Walker had pushed her husband downstairs, and pushed him over.

The jury heard that Walker had an affair with a woman he met while dancing and he and Mrs Walker separated in 2000.

In 2002 Mrs Walker began divorce proceedings and on November 11 Walker received documents from Mrs Walker's solicitor which he refused to sign.

Karim Khalil, prosecuting, said on November 12 Walker took a 12 bore shot gun he used for shooting rabbits and shot his wife from three feet away as she was eating breakfast in their dining room.

Walker, who denies murdering his 63-year-old wife, telephoned the police half an hour later and said: "I have just committed a murder."

He later said: "I was just overcome with anger."

The court has heard that his defence is likely to be, that he was suffering from diminished responsibility.

The trial continues.