Husband who ‘murdered wife & buried body in garden’ hid horror from her family & shared grinning Facebook selfies

A MAN who murdered his wife and buried her body in the garden shared grinning Facebook selfies after hiding the horror from her family.

Evil Stuart Williamson, 56, repeatedly smashed his partner Diane Douglas over the head with a log in late 2018.

For three years afterwards the NHS manager duped Diane’s family into thinking she was alive – while pocketing her benefits and pension.

Williamson posted gloating snaps online of himself smoking cigars and lounging on a tropical beach.

The killer called himself “happily retired” and spent Diane’s income on lavish holidays abroad.

But Diane’s family became suspicious and called the police – who in November 2021 snared Williamson in a missing-person probe.

He told cops that he “must have picked up a log and hit with it” – but said he had no memory of the brutal murder.

Williamson then led officers to Diane’s shallow grave in the garden of their rented farmhouse in Colton near Norwich.

In December 2021 Williamson cheated justice by killing himself while on remand.

Diane’s family said: “Between 2018 and 2021, Stuart Williamson led us to believe Diane was alive and well.

“He used Diane’s mobile telephone to send text messages to different family members, especially at birthdays and Christmas, and arranged meetings and then cancelled at the last minute.

“The deception also allowed the perpetrator to continue financially abusing Diane to fund his lifestyle by using her NHS pension, disability benefits, savings and the DWP allowance he was claiming as her carer.”

‘PREDATORY’

Yesterday an NHS colleague told an inquest: “He was a narcissistic sociopath with a very big ego.

“He never liked to be challenged in any way. He used to have total disdain for his patients.

“He didn’t want anything to do with them and would call them ‘punters’.

“On one occasion I had to cut a patient down from a ligature and he stood over them sneering, without showing any compassion.”

The retired nurse added: “He left Diane on a number of occasions for other women and was well-known as a sex pest.

“I could never understand why she kept going back to him but that is how controlling he always was.”

Another colleague told the inquest: “He definitely had a reputation for targeting women and generally being a womaniser.

“He was just a creep – he definitely had a pattern of predatory behaviour towards women.”

Diane was described as a “dedicated, caring nurse – very quiet and just went about her duties”.

Her relationship with Williamson had broken down in 2011 after she was diagnosed with Huntingdon’s disease.

But she was living with Williamson again by 2016 after developing “significant” mental impairment.

The nurse’s nephew told social services in 2017 that Williamson was “exploiting her capacity issues for money” – but the inquest heard that nothing was done to stop him.