­AN Okehampton lawyer was murdered by her lover who then crashed his car as he tried to dispose of her body, which was in the passenger seat, it was alleged at Exeter Crown Court this week.

Prosecutor Paul Dunkels QC told the court that when John Doyle, 54, of Merton, crashed his white Ford Fiesta van, he had already strangled his 50-year-old partner Sian Rees at their home near Hatherleigh.

The defendant had hit a traffic island, puncturing a tyre but drove on even after the tyre shredded. He was driving on the metal rim until he lost control and crashed on to the top of a bank near Hatherleigh on July 1 last year.

Mr Dunkels said: 'It quickly became apparent why the defendant was so keen not to stop.

'In the front passenger seat was the dead body of his partner Sian Rees. She had not been injured in the car crash. Her body was cold and she had been dead for a significant period of time.'

In the footwell, he said, was a kitchen knife used to stab her in the stomach.

The Crown said the couple met in 1996 and lived together for 12 years, ending up at Merton Mill near Hatherleigh, a remote mill Doyle was converting. But by 2001 there were problems in their relationship.

The Crown said: 'She felt he was not getting on with the renovation as he should have been. For his part he did not like the fact that Sian Rees had a problem with her weight.'

She confided to colleagues and friends that the relationship was breaking down. She also revealed that she had been in contact with a man on an internet message board which Doyle discovered and which led to a 'huge row'.

Mr Dunkels said Ms Rees and the man never met and never even spoke to each other by phone.

A friend of Ms Rees said the couple had talked over their problems and agreed that she would lose weight and he would get on with doing up the mill, said Mr Dunkels.

Two days before she was killed, Ms Rees told a work colleague that Doyle had not kept to his side of the deal and she 'was sick of living on a building site' and wanted to 'start a new life without him'.

At the same time she found a lump on her breast, but she wanted to spilt up and sell their home, the jury heard. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and on the day she was killed, she had gone to an Exeter hospital for treatment under a general anaesthetic.

The court heard Doyle drove her there, spent the day drinking in Exeter and was then late to pick her up from the hospital.

Mr Dunkels said Doyle was clearly not fit to drive so Ms Rees drove, despite having had anaesthetic.

An 'agitated' Ms Rees stopped at a hotel in Okehampton to book a room for herself that night but went back to their home together to collect some personal items — 'but she never returned'.

The court heard a row must have started in their kitchen where it was alleged Doyle stabbed her in the abdomen with the four-inch bladed knife but in the end strangled her using 'his bare hands'.

The next morning he set off to dispose of her body and any incriminating evidence. But he crashed the car.

 A nurse stopped and found that Ms Rees was obviously dead even though Doyle was trying to pull her from the car, but 'it quickly became apparent that Sian Rees had not died' in the crash.

Doyle asked the nurse 'is she okay?' and was told she was dead and he replied 'Oh,' which surprised the nurse because of his 'lack of emotion'.

A post-mortem examination revealed Ms Rees died from compression of the neck and her voice box had been fractured.

Mr Dunkels told the jury: 'It must have been a frightening and painful ordeal for Sian Rees.'

Doyle denies murder and his trial continues.