Desmond Blain

Desmond Blain died after falling down a stairway at a block of flats in Beaumont Gardens on 30 May 1987.

His wife was charged with his murder, but no evidence was offered at her trial and she was discharged.

It was alleged she had pushed him down the stairs.

It was heard that she had been questioned at a police station but following evidence from doctors, the judge ruled that her answers when questioned by the police were unreliable and therefore inadmissible under section 76 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

They had lived together in a flat in Beaumont Gardens, Chantry Road, Kempston.

Desmond Blain's wife was said to have had a history of mental illness stretching back 40 years and at the time of her trial had been a patient at a psychiatric hospital.

It was reported that following her acquittal that neighbours at the Duke public house in Kempston where they used to drink were delighted with the verdict.

Friends of Desmond Blain's wife had said that whether or not the allegations against her were true, Desmond Blain had been a cruel and evil man. They described him as a drunk who took great pleasure in humiliating her in public, noting that he had been a petty criminal with convictions for burglary.

It was said that when they had been living in Kimbolton Road that Desmond Blain had been arrested after having smashed the window of a grocer’s store, Civils, to steal a bottle of sherry and that when the police had arrived he was found drinking it in a nearby telephone kiosk.

A friend of Desmond Blain's wife said: