A man has been found guilty of raping and murdering his estranged wife after prosecutors said he killed her and then staged the scene to make it appear she had died by suicide.
Michael Thompson, 56, was convicted Wednesday of the rape and murder of Kimberley Thompson, 43, following a six-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court in England, according to a Northamptonshire Police press release and the BBC.
Jurors also found Thompson guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice for attempting to cover up both the rape and the murder, according to the press release.
Prosecutors alleged Thompson raped and suffocated Kimberley sometime between midnight and 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 9, 2025, at the Northampton home the couple still shared despite having separated two years earlier, according to the press release.
The couple had been married for 19 years but were in the process of divorcing. The court heard Kimberley had started a new relationship, was planning to move out of the home and had requested about £65,000 as part of their divorce settlement, according to the BBC and Northamptonshire Police.
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Following the murder, Thompson staged Kimberley’s bedroom to make it appear she had taken her own life, posted messages on her social media accounts and called East Midlands Ambulance Service at about 5:30 a.m., according to the Northamptonshire Police press release.
Authorities were initially told Kimberley had consumed alcohol and tablets before she was found unresponsive, the BBC reported. But a post-mortem examination found no alcohol in her system and only low levels of caffeine, paracetamol and codeine, according to the outlet.
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Kimberley’s family and friends told investigators they did not believe she had died by suicide and described a history of domestic abuse during her marriage, prompting police to launch a murder investigation on Aug. 12, according to Northamptonshire Police and the BBC.
“It became clear throughout our investigation that Kim had been subjected to domestic abuse for much of her relationship with Thompson, with manipulation, coercive control and physical violence the norm,” Detective Chief Inspector Torie Harrison, who led the investigation, said in a statement.
“Over the years Thompson stripped Kim’s confidence away but in the time since their separation, friends and family began to see the old Kim re-emerging with a renewed enthusiasm for life.”
Harrison said Thompson “brutally rape[d] and murder[ed]” Kimberley before taking time to stage her death “in order to make people believe she had committed suicide.”
The detective also said the investigation revealed Kimberley had contacted a domestic abuse support service in 2013 but later withdrew her complaint because she feared what would happen if she reported the abuse, according to the press release.
Thompson is scheduled to be sentenced next week, per the BBC.
