A British MP’s wife has told jurors she has no recollection of taking a kitten from the home of her husband’s long-term lover.
Christine Hemming, who was captured on CCTV carrying a cat away from the scene of the alleged crime, told Birmingham Crown Court she “had no intention” of taking the animal from the home of Emily Cox.
Mrs Hemming, the spouse of Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, denies burgling Ms Cox’s home in Moseley, Birmingham, on September 29th last year.
The defendant (53), who also lives in Moseley, acknowledged that she did go to Ms Cox’s house on the night the kitten, named Beauty, was last seen.
Claiming she visited the property to drop off items of post for her husband, Mrs Hemming told jurors: “I had no intention of stealing a cat - either before I went to the property, when I was at the property, when I left the property, and subsequently.
“I didn’t know there was a cat in the property . . . I have no recollection of taking the cat, and I tried my best to return the cat when it dawned on me that I had it.”
The jury was shown the CCTV footage during the prosecution’s opening speech, and was then talked through which areas of the house it showed by Ms Cox.
The images showed a woman appearing to look through a window, entering the house through a door and then walking away from the property carrying a cat.
During her testimony, Ms Cox told the court how she first met Mr Hemming 13 years ago and began a relationship with him after becoming his personal assistant.
Beauty had belonged to her then four-year-old daughter by Mr Hemming, said Ms Cox, who told the court he alerted her to the CCTV images in the early hours of October 8th.
Under cross-examination from defence counsel Gerald Bermingham, Ms Cox was asked how many times Mrs Hemming had visited her house. “I don’t know,” the MP’s lover answered. “Probably more times than I know about. I have never invited her in.”
Ms Cox confirmed her home was bought with money lent to her by Mr Hemming, although he later wrote off the loan.
Describing the MP as a “good father”, Ms Cox told jurors she had not got involved in tension between Mr and Mrs Hemming in September last year. “I didn’t think it was my business, I didn’t want to influence the process one way or another,” she said.
Mrs Hemming was arrested on suspicion of burglary at about 7am on October 14th and, the court heard, admitted to police that she had taken the four-month-old cat.
A transcript of her police interview was read to the trial by Mr Pegg and Detective Constable Ian Davis, who was involved in the arrest.
Mrs Hemming told police that she then picked up the kitten and left the house, adding that she later let it go in the neighbourhood and had “put it over the fence” at her home.
The jury has been told Mr Hemming will not be called as a witness in the case.
PA