Christopher Lumsden told Manchester crown court he had taken a knife from a bedside table drawer and approached his wife, Alison, as she sat at the dressing table at their home in Altrincham, Cheshire.Defence barrister Peter Birkett QC said: "You accept, Mr Lumsden, do you not, that you killed your wife?" Putting his head in his hands, the defendant replied: "Yes, I do."
Mr Lumsden killed his wife by repeatedly thrusting a kitchen knife into her neck, face and back. "She saw me and started to stand and turn," he said. "I put the knife downwards, and everything went blank."
Five days before the incident, she had told him she was having a relationship with Roger Flint, a family friend.
Mr Lumsden admits killing his wife but denies murder, claiming he was suffering "abnormality of mind". The jury must decide whether the 52-year-old is guilty of murder or manslaughter.
The court heard that Mr Lumsden, a banking and finance partner at Pinsent Masons, attacked her on the night of March 16 last year after she told him she was leaving him for Mr Flint.
"I had trouble believing what I heard," he said. "Alison had lied to me, betrayed me with someone I had regarded as my friend and was abandoning me."
The court heard Mr Lumsden had been diagnosed with a muscle-wasting disease in his back around four months earlier. A specialist told him he could have as little as three years to live.
He told the court that despite his health problems and stressful job, he was still keen for his marriage to work and had done his best to make that happen.
In around February 2005, Mrs Lumsden began an affair with Mr Flint, the court heard. Mr Flint and his wife had known the Lumsdens for around 15 years.
On March 11, she told her husband about the relationship and said she wanted a divorce.
Mr Lumsden told the court how he had tried to carry on with his normal life and work in the following days, but said he "broke" on the night of March 16.
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