PENSIONER JOHN Walker, a respected pillar of the community in the Woodbridge area, today appeared in court charged with murdering his wife Walker, a former agricultural scientist from Great Bealings, currently on bail, arrived at Ipswich Crown Court alone in order to change the solicitors apparently representing him.

PENSIONER JOHN Walker, a respected pillar of the community in the Woodbridge area, today appeared in court charged with murdering his wife

Walker, a former agricultural scientist from Great Bealings, currently on bail, arrived at Ipswich Crown Court alone in order to change the solicitors apparently representing him.

Dressed in a grey suit, striped shirt and purple tie, 65-year-old Walker appeared in good spirits.

He is currently listed at a London address with bail fixed at £125,000 and an order to report to Islington Police Station three times a week.

Walker, a former technical manager for chemicals company BASF, was charged with the murder of his wife, 63-year-old Glenda Walker.

Her body was found at her home, Meadow Cottage, off Lodge Road, Great Bealings, at 8.20am on November 12 last year.

A post mortem examination carried out by a Home Office pathologist confirmed that the cause of death was the result of a single gunshot to the chest.

The Walkers were extremely well known in both Bealings and Woodbridge.

Walker's membership of many community groups included the River Deben Association, the Deben Yacht Club and a member of the Suffolk Preservation Society.