Wealthy divorcee 'battered to death' by her secret lover after sex sessions in lay-bys and pub car parks

A wealthy businesswoman was murdered and her body mutilated by the penniless lover to whom she had given £70,000, a court has heard. During their 20-month affair, David Ryan left his wife at home as he sneaked off to have sex with Diana Leein the back of her car in lay-bys and pub car parks and inside her isolated £500,000 mansion. After one rendezvous at her house, Ryan, 48, is alleged to have bludgeoned to death 54-year-old Miss Lee, who was less than 5ft tall and weighed less than 8 stone. The bankrupt former conservatory fitter, who was £90,000 in debt, deniesmurder and has said he was at home with his wife watching the Olympic Games at the time. Chester Crown Court heard that after killing Miss Lee in August last year, Ryan mutilated her body with a saw todestroy DNA evidence, before draggingher body into the garage and setting iton fire. Ryan then tried to frame Miss Lee’s live-in lodger. He smeared her blood on the man’s antique German army SS dagger, slashed her dressing gown with it to make it appear it had been used to stab her to death and left some of her underwear in his bedroom. He also sent text messages from Miss Lee’s mobile phone to customers of hercattery business, which she ran from her house near the village of Cranage, near Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, to implythat she was still alive. Ryan then fled in Miss Lee’s car, beforeabandoning it 10 miles away and attempting to set fire to it. However, Ryan’s attempts to cover his tracks failed after the fire in the garagefailed to take hold and it was discovered by Miss Lee’s brother a few hours later. Police found her naked, partly charred body in a wheelbarrow, surrounded by petrol, her bedding, shredded paper and logs. Three weeks later, police interviewed Ryan after discovering he had contacted her by mobile phone in the days before her death. Ryan, who had a penchant for designerclothes and Italian shoes, met Miss Leeat a dance club and she did not know that he was married, Brian Cummings QC, prosecuting, told the jury.