Man Guilty of Murdering Wife

05/03/2010

Today at Birmingham Crown Court Simon Downer, 32, was found guilty of murdering his wife Tracey Downer at their home in Tamworth on 20 June 2009.

Downer stabbed his wife after an argument, delivering a single stab wound to her chest piercing her heart, she died shortly afterwards at hospital.

Don Knapper, District Crown Prosecutor for CPS Staffordshire said after the verdict: Downer denied stabbing his wife and offered an improbable suggestion that she stabbed herself whilst she was cooking.

Tracey's eight year old daughter discovered her mother injured on the sofa and it was her who contacted the emergency services.

The aftermath of this brutal attack was left for an eight year old girl to handle, the impact of that will be devastating and will no doubt stay with her for the rest of her life.

Our thoughts at this time go out to Tracey's daughter, family and friends.

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Notes to editors

1. All local media enquiries for CPS Staffordshire cases to Katy Halls on 01782 664565.
2. The CPS consists of 42 Areas in total, each headed by a Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP). These are organised into 14 Groups, plus CPS London, each overseen by Group Chair, a senior CCP. In addition there are four specialised national divisions: Organised Crime, Special Crime, Counter-Terrorism and the Fraud Prosecution Service. A telephone service, CPS Direct, provides out-of-hours advice and decisions to police officers across England and Wales. The CPS employs around 8,250 people and prosecuted 1,032,598 cases with an overall conviction rate of 86.6% in 2008-2009. Further information can be found on our website: www.cps.gov.uk