A PROPERTY developer this week admitted causing the death of his solicitor partner.

But John Doyle denies murdering 50-year-old family lawyer Sian Rees at their converted mill home near Merton last June.

The prosecution say he strangled her hours after she returned home from a breast cancer operation.

The Crown said that around 12 hours after Doyle had murdered her, he put her body into his van and was going to dispose of it when he crashed his car. 

Exeter Crown Court heard the admission as John Doyle, 54, gave evidence in his own defence.

He was asked by his barrister Michael Fitton QC: 'Do you accept that you caused her death?' Doyle replied: 'I did.'

Mr Fitton then asked him about the post-mortem examination report which said she died from compression of her neck.

Doyle said: 'I do accept having held her neck.'

But Doyle told the court he did not intend to kill Ms Rees.

Property developer and charity fundraiser Doyle told the jury that Ms Rees suffered with her weight and went on extreme diets.

He said Ms Rees bought clothes which would 'fit her in the future' and ordered them to make her feel good, adding: 'Many of the clothes she bought she never wore. She never got to the size of the fit and hated buying clothes when she was big. She could not face up to what she was but what she wanted to be.'

The Crown claimed during their case that Ms Rees suffered 40 different injuries when she was killed.

On the day of her death she had undergone an operation to remove a tumour from her breast at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. She was annoyed when Doyle turned up late and drunk to pick her up and she ended up driving them home, despite having had surgery under a general anaesthetic.

The Crown say Doyle killed her that evening at their home but her body was not discovered until the next day when he crashed his van. Her body was in the passenger seat.

He said they met through a dating agency in 1997 but their relationship hit problems in 2011.

Doyle denies murder and his trial continues.