JAILED: Drunk who strangled his wife and left her body to rot in Leigh back garden because 'she got on his nerves'

Thomas Flanagan, aged 57, confessed to strangling Elaine Flanagan after her body was found in a shallow grave in the back garden of their home in Wigan Road, Leigh, by police, almost a month after she died.

A family friend called the police after Flanagan drunkenly admitted killing her when the friend asked why he had not seen Mrs Flanagan for a while.

He then attempted to pass his confession off as a joke before telling him that he had buried her in the back garden.

Flanagan told the arresting officer: "I've killed her. I strangled the woman. She got on my nerves and I strangled her.

"I went completely off my head and I'll make a full confession. Sorry mate."

On August 17, police found Mrs Flanagan’s body, which was so badly decomposed that a cause of death could not be established and she had to be identified by her dental records.

The couple had earlier had a heated argument on July 25 after Mrs Flanagan, aged 59, who regularly destroyed her husband’s credit cards to stop him gambling, hid one that had arrived in the post.

One of the last pictures of Elaine Flanagan captured on CCTV

Flanagan claimed during the fight that his wife turned violent, slapping him before he grabbed her around the throat and pinned her up against the kitchen wall until he felt something crack.

Liverpool Crown Court, where today, Flanagan denied murdering his wife but pleaded guilty to manslaughter, heard how he went on a drunken binge after he killed her and left her lying on the kitchen floor of their home for two days, only moving it when it began to smell.

Sentencing Flanagan to 11 years in jail Judge Mark Brown said: "It cannot have been easy for your wife living with a man who was drinking and gambling.

"It was perfectly understandable for her to adopt a firm approach with you.

"I am satisfied by drinking and gambling you created the very situation that led to the fatal confrontation.

"There is no doubt you killed a defenceless woman in violent circumstances and in my judgement defiled her body when you put her into a makeshift grave in the garden.

"You literally left her body to rot and that has caused great anguish to your wife's family."

After her death Flanagan was seen going to the local bookmakers and appeared drunk each day.

Duncan Thorpe, who led the investigation, said: "We may never know exactly what happened in the kitchen on the fateful morning Elaine was killed, but what we do know for certain is that Flanagan had more than three weeks to inform the authorities that his wife had died.

"The couple did not have many friends and kept themselves to themselves, so it was not until Thomas confessed to a friend that the police became aware that Elaine had been killed.

"Ultimately, this is an extremely tragic case in which a woman lost her life following a heated argument and was denied a proper burial for nearly a month."