A man convicted 20 years ago of murdering his estranged wife has claimed she is still alive and conspired to plant the crucial evidence against him.
Glyn Razzell told a parole hearing – one of the first in the UK to be heard in public – that his wife, Linda Razzell, must have worked with someone to plant splashes of her blood that were found in the boot of a car he had used.
Razzell, 64, pointed out that police initially did not find the blood. He said: “It was placed there to incriminate me. It must have been with Linda’s involvement because it was fresh blood. I’m not victim-blaming her. I’m saying she was alive a week after she was supposed to be dead.”
He said he believed she was still alive and he planned to try to find her if the Parole Board agreed he could be released from prison. “I have to – for my children, too,” he said.
Razzell was found guilty in 2003 of the murder of Linda, who was 41 when she went missing the previous year, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Appearing in front of a Parole Board panel on Thursday, Razzell was asked to reveal the location of his wife’s body so that her family could carry out a funeral.
He said: “I don’t know where Linda’s remains are. I don’t even know she’s dead for sure. I understand the anguish that my children and Linda’s family feel. If there was anything I could do to help with that, I would, particularly for my children. I don’t know where her remains are. I don’t even know if she is dead.”
A panel member told Razzell that his children and Linda’s family had been grieving for many years and wanted to arrange her funeral to gain closure. The panel member, who cannot be named, told him: “You and you alone are the barrier to them completing this. Where can the police locate the remains of Linda Razzell?”
Razzell insisted he did not know. When asked if shame was preventing him from admitting killing his wife, he said: “Not at all.”
Asked about the psychological harm he had caused to his children, he said: “I don’t feel guilt for it because it’s not caused by me, but I do feel their pain and suffering and I carry that too.”
The panel member who is a forensic psychologist said: “Why did you kill Linda Razzell?” Razzell replied: “I didn’t.”
The psychologist asked: “Did you plan to kill Linda Razzell?” The prisoner replied: “I didn’t kill Linda Razzell.”
The panel member asked: “How did you kill Linda Razzell?” Razzell replied: “I didn’t kill Linda Razzell.”
It has been alleged that Razzell assaulted his wife on a number of occasions before she disappeared, grabbing her by the hair, pushing her into a wall, slapping and kicking her.
Razzell said relatives of Linda who claimed he was violent to her before and during their marriage were “mistaken” and had been “manipulated” by her.
He conceded he had been “verbally hostile” to his wife but denied ever physically assaulting her, threatening her or using controlling and coercive behaviour.
Razzell said police had told his children that he attacked his wife with a hammer. “That’s not true,” he said. “I think she intended to disappear to get me into trouble. I expected her to turn up, maybe with some story about me kidnapping her.”
He gave evidence from the open prison where he is being held, with the hearing relayed into a courtroom in London, and he refused to be seen on camera.
At the time of Linda Razzell’s disappearance, she and her husband were in the process of getting divorced and he was facing an unfavourable financial settlement.
She left home in the market town of Highworth, near Swindon, on the morning of 19 March 2002 and dropped off her partner, Greg Worrall, who worked at the town’s Honda factory, before apparently heading to her workplace, Swindon College.
Worrall contacted the police that evening when she failed to pick up her two younger children from an after-school club. Her car and phone were found near the college but there was no sign of her.
Last year, Razzell became the first prisoner to be refused parole under the so-called “Helen’s law”, which makes it harder for killers to be released if they refuse to reveal where they hid their victim’s body.
Before Thursday’s hearing, Worrall said Razzell committed a new crime against his victim and her family every day that he refused to allow a proper burial to take place.
The hearing continues.
