A HUSBAND'S decision to kill his wife was pre-meditated, calculated and cold blooded - and not the spontaneous crime of passion that he claims, it has been alleged.

A HUSBAND'S decision to kill his wife was pre-meditated, calculated and cold blooded - and not the spontaneous crime of passion that he claims, it has been alleged.

Colin Dorey, 43, told Ipswich Crown Court yesterday that he snapped after Christine Dorey admitted she felt that the fact they got back together ten years ago after a brief break-up was a "terrible mistake".

He said: "I was just completely devastated. I thought the last 11 years had been happy. I felt like I just could not breathe and I was suffocating."

Dorey, of Bedell Close, Bury St Edmunds, denies murdering his wife on January 3 this year. He has admitted manslaughter, but that plea has not been accepted by the prosecution.

On the night of the killing Dorey left the lounge at the couple's home and returned with a hammer before bludgeoning his wife over the head several times while she lay on a settee, although he told the jury that he could not remember striking any blows.

Dorey said: "I went out of the room, saw my rucksack in the corner, took the hammer out and the last thing I remember is just looking down and seeing Christine there."

Dorey claims he bought the hammer that day to demolish their children's wooden playhouse.

But, under cross examination, prosecution barrister Nigel Peters QC, accused Dorey of deliberately buying the tool that day to use as a weapon, waiting till his children were asleep upstairs and his wife was dozing before pulling a blanket over her head and deliberately killing her.

Mr Peters said: "I would suggest that you were waiting for her to fall asleep so you could kill her. You put the blanket over her head so you would not have to see the violent acts that you were about to do."

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard that, shortly before Mrs Dorey's death, Dorey had suspected his wife was having an affair with a work colleague when she began to become more secretive and he found contraceptive pills in her handbag.

The jury had also been told that the couple had difficulties in 1990 when Mrs Dorey became pregnant after an affair but the relationship survived and Dorey agreed to raise the child as his own.

Yesterday, the court heard from members of Dorey's family and work colleagues who testified to his previous good character and temperament.

Peter Beasley, a friend and fellow chef at Trinity College, Cambridge, said: "He is a devoted father who loves his children. He works hard and is a very nice family man."

The trial continues.