Killing of Joanna Simpson

Joanna Simpson was a 46-year-old woman from York who had settled in the Ascot area near Windsor Great Park, where she ran a bed and breakfast. She had previously divorced amicably from her first husband before meeting Robert Brown, a British Airways long-haul pilot from Edinburgh. Brown moved in with Simpson in 1998, and the couple married in February 1999 after a brief courtship, having two children together in 1999 and 2001. Simpson's parents were reportedly unfavorable toward Brown from the outset, and Simpson herself told her mother during their honeymoon that marrying him had been "a terrible mistake."

The marriage deteriorated over subsequent years. In January 2007, Simpson consulted a solicitor after Brown accused her of infidelity. The following month, Brown told her by phone that he had been having "really dark thoughts," including about killing her and their children with an axe. In a separate incident, Brown held a knife to Simpson's chest during a confrontation in their kitchen; she talked him out of attacking her but told him she could no longer stay in the marriage. He warned her that telling anyone would be "the worst" for her. The couple subsequently separated, and Brown began a relationship with a British Airways cabin crew colleague.

Eleven days before the killing, a UK court ruling in the case of Katrin Radmacher established that prenuptial agreements could be legally binding. Simpson believed this precedent might benefit her in her own divorce, and a friend was aware that this development could anger Brown, who stood to gain no money under the couple's prenup.

On 31 October 2010, Brown returned the couple's children to Simpson's house following a week-long stay with him. Simpson, who was normally accompanied by a friend when Brown visited out of fear of him, was alone. An argument began at the front door, during which Brown struck her 14 times with a hammer he had concealed in one of the children's bags. Witnessed by the couple's younger child, Brown placed Simpson's body in his car boot, removed the house's CCTV unit, drove the children to his girlfriend's house, then buried Simpson's body in a plastic garden box in a pre-dug shallow grave in Windsor Great Park.

Brown contacted police the next morning to report a "serious domestic incident" and was arrested on suspicion of murder. After initially giving "no comment" answers across multiple interviews, he admitted to police on 3 November that he had "lost control and pushed her" and hidden and buried her body. He led police to the grave site on 4 November. A post-mortem found Simpson had been struck at least 14 times with a claw hammer with heavy force, sustaining defensive injuries to her hands.

At Reading Crown Court, Brown pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility, citing a psychiatric diagnosis of adjustment disorder. The prosecution's psychiatric expert disputed this assessment. The jury acquitted Brown of murder and convicted him of manslaughter; he was sentenced to 26 years, including two years for preventing the lawful burial of a body. Simpson's family described the outcome as a "miscarriage of justice." In 2023, following a campaign by Simpson's family and supporters, the Justice Secretary used powers under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 to block Brown's automatic release, referring him instead to the Parole Board.