A WIFE accused of murder "got off" on a "fantasy world" of "violence and sex", her co-accused lover told a court today.

Angela Taylor, 53, and Paul Cannon, 54, are accused of murdering her husband, William "Bill" Taylor.

Mr Taylor was last seen at his home of Harkness Hall in Gosmore, Hertfordshire, on June 3 last year, several days before his 70th birthday.

The farmer was missing for eight months before a member of the public found his body in a river in February.

Taylor and Cannon, both of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, deny murder, arson and an alternative charge of conspiracy to murder.

In the weeks and months preceding Mr Taylor's disappearance, the lovers shared many violently and sexually graphic messages over WhatsApp.

'NO BOUNDARIES'

Mr Cannon told St Albans Crown Court: "We got off on that sort of stuff. Violence and sex, that was our fantasy world, it has no boundaries.

"You can do whatever you want in a fantasy."

He said that their violent exchanges provided Taylor some respite from the unhappiness in her relationship with Mr Taylor.

Mr Cannon added: "She could open a tap and let her stress out.

Violence and sex, that was our fantasy world, it has no boundaries

"She was calm the next day, a different woman."

Messages sent between the lovers in the weeks preceding the 69-year-old's disappearance include Taylor telling Cannon: "I feel like going up there right now and f****** beheading him."

The jury at St Albans Crown Court had previously heard that the pair had a "bitter, pervasive hatred" of Mr Taylor, who was refusing to grant a divorce.

John Price QC, prosecuting, said the couple saw Mr Taylor as "a thorn in your sides".

He said: "You invite the jury to conclude that the two of you were trying to become sexually aroused by the messages."

The court previously heard Taylor met her husband in 1992, and they married in 1997 and had three children together.

Several days before he went missing, Mr Taylor's Land Rover was seriously damaged by fire after a diesel-soaked towel was set alight inside it, the court heard.

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