THE police officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Jim Bainbridge said it had been a difficult inquiry. There were so many twists and turns, he said. I want to congratulate the police team for putting together such conclusive

THE police officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Jim Bainbridge said it had been a difficult inquiry. "There were so many twists and turns," he said. "I want to congratulate the police team for putting together such conclusive evidence for the prosecution that Evans changed his plea to guilty."

He added: "There was a clear escalation of violence after October 2005. We were called to the Evans' house 70 times between 1999 and the night she died. We will now re-examine our reaction to every one of those calls and see if we could have done something differently.

"I think the answer will be no, because domestic violence is something very difficult to investigate. People are very clever at covering it up, both the victim and the offender. They were quite an introverted couple. We have a robust domestic violence policy but it is difficult to take action if people don't want to tell you what is going on."

DCI Bainbridge added: "This has been a very tragic case. Leonie's family was shattered by her death at the hands of her husband. I hope his decision to admit what he did allows them some sense of justice being done, and allows them to move on with their lives.