A 'controlling' husband accused of raping and murdering his wife before 'staging a scene' to frame it as a suicide dialled 999 and claimed: 'I can't wake my wife up', jurors heard today.

Michael Thompson, 55, suffocated Kimberley, 43, before placing empty tablet packets and spirit bottles beside her to suggest she had either taken her own life or died in a 'terrible accident', a court was told.

Today the 999 call made by Thompson was played in court, in which he claimed he had found his wife, who was known as Kim, in bed and was unable to rouse her.

He told the female operator: 'I can't wake my wife up.

'I need an ambulance now. I don't know (what happened). I have just come down and seen her in bed with tablets and vodka. I need some help.'

Asked by the operator if Kim was breathing, Thompson replied: 'I can't see any movement... Oh my gosh, I can't see her chest.'

Thompson was then instructed on how to perform CPR, and wailed as he appeared to start chest compressions.

He was told by the operator, 'I know this is hard but I need you to keep going for me. You're doing really good.' 

At one point, Thompson appeared to vomit – with the sound of repeated retching heard. The operator said: 'Once you stop being sick we need to start the compressions again... just keep going'.

When paramedics eventually arrived, Thompson was heard on the line telling them: 'I found her like this.'

In her opening of the case on Tuesday, prosecutor Miranda Moore KC said Kim was already dead when the ten-minute call was made at 5.40am on August 9 last year.

She said the defendant had 'set a scene' - sending a text message to himself from her phone suggesting she wanted sex then moving bottles of gin and vodka and co-codamol packets into her downstairs bedroom.

Ms Moore said the text was so Thompson could claim they had consensual sex, while the tablet packets and bottles were to suggest a suicide and 'cover up' the murder.

The court heard a photograph of Kim and Thompson was also on the bed, alongside a picture of her sister, who died by suicide, when paramedics and police arrived at the property in Northampton.

Ms Moore said first responders were 'entirely taken in by his charade', and on police bodycam footage which was also played to Nottingham Crown Court today a sergeant who attended the property could be seen comforting Thompson.

The recording showed the downstairs bedroom where Kim was found, with her body blurred out, while Thompson sat on the floor in a T-shirt and boxer shorts.

He was asked by the officer, sergeant Marko Mandich, if he 'got the impression she was in any way suicidal', replying: 'She used to be... 2023. I didn't act on it.'

Sgt Mandich comforted Thompson, telling him it was 'two years ago' and 'there is nothing you could have done in that respect', before he apologises for asking if Kim is a 'heavy drinker'. Thompson replies, 'Heavy is a bit harsh, but she can drink.'

He is later heard to describe how he claimed to have found Kim unconscious, telling the officer: 'I had to turn her over as she was facing down. There was vomit. I had to turn her over and do the compressions. I think it (vomit) was already there.'

Sgt Mandich went on to tell a colleague that he believed Kim choked on her own vomit after drinking vodka and gin, and there was 'nothing to suggest suicide'. He added that 'her partner is proper distraught'.

A female detective sergeant later arrived and examined the scene, before telling Thompson as she left: 'I am really sorry for your loss. If you need anything from us or have any questions, please ask.'

The court has heard forensic evidence indicated Kim did not vomit.

Jurors were told the couple were in the process of divorcing but remained under the same roof, sleeping in separate bedrooms. 

In the months leading up to the murder, Thompson had been spying on, tracking and reading his wife's messages, jurors have been told.

The mother-of-two had a new boyfriend and was 'moving on with her life', Ms Moore said.

Thompson was arrested three days after Kim's death early on August 9 and 'maintained the fiction that she died due to drink and excess drugs', Ms Moore said.

But a post-mortem examination showed no evidence of alcohol and only low levels of caffeine, paracetamol and codeine - ingredients in co-codamol. A pathologist concluded she had been smothered, dying of external airway obstruction.

Ms Moore said on the night Kim died, the defendant had been in his room watching sexual videos, 'stewing' about the fact Kim had a new boyfriend, was planning to move out and had asked for around £65,000 in their divorce.

The court heard that from 2014, eight years after their wedding, Mrs Thompson told friends of 'physical, emotional abuse and controlling behaviour by Mr Thompson'.

Thompson, of Northampton, denies murder, rape and two counts of perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.