THIS is the face of murderer Maurice Allen who was jailed for life this week for strangling his ex-wife.

Allen, 53, throttled his estranged wife, Linda, at their home in Chalk Farm Road, Stokenchurch, on November 19 last year.

This mugshot was taken shortly after his arrest when he was taken to High Wycombe police station and examined by a police surgeon who concluded that his injuries were caused by his victim as she struggled to defend herself.

Allen murdered Linda as their two young children slept upstairs. He then telephoned Linda's mother to tell her what he had done.

At Reading Crown Court on Tuesday a jury unanimously found Allen guilty of murder.

During the seven day trial, jurors rejected Allen's claims that he suffered an "abnormality of the mind" when he attacked 38-year-old Linda, a full-time mother.

Allen said that since Linda's death he had been haunted by nightmares in which she appeared as a Rottweiler. And he cried in court as he told how he had attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on asprin shortly before her murder.

Allen, who had been a project control manager with gas and oil giant M W Kellogg for more than 11 years, claimed he could remember nothing of the killing. He told detectives his last clear image was of Linda moving toward him.

He said he later "woke up" sitting across his ex-wife in the living room. When asked by detectives in High Wycombe if he was grasping her neck, he replied: "Yep that I know."

He continued: "All I know is that my thumbs hurt a bit. They just ached a bit in the joints."

Of the nightmares, Allen said: "In one of the dreams Linda and I are fighting in the living room by the television. Then she somehow turns into a Rottweiller and comes towards me with her fangs."

The court was told the couple were embroiled in a bitter battle for custody of their sons after divorcing in May, last year.

The court heard how Linda had been having a relationship with a local man Barry Stanford and that Allen blamed his wife for the breakdown of their marriage.

Allen said: "Her lifestyle, the amount she was drinking and the obvious relationship didn't seem appropriate for the children. At any opportunity she would try to come between me and the children."

He killed Linda after returning home from a meeting with his solicitor during which he heard his wife would probably be given custody of the children.

After the attack Allen phoned Linda's mother to confess before dialling the emergency services.

William Coker QC, prosecuting, said Allen told a police 999 operator what he had done after Linda had started to mock him. A taped recording of Allen's 999 confession was played to jurors in court.

Friends and family of the couple, including Linda's parents Harold and June Bishop, packed the public gallery throughout the trial.

Mr and Mrs Bishop said: "We would like to thank the Stokenchurch community for their support to the police and ourselves during the investigation. It's sad that this has affected a large number of people.

"It particularly leaves behind two small children without a mother or father. It is important now that we focus on caring for the lives of the two children."

DI Brian Jessop, the senior investigating officer added: "This is very sad. Everyone in this case is a victim, especially the children."