Nurse accused of wife's murder 'lost all self control'
A nurse who killed his wife and made it look like a car crash has told a court he "lost all self-control" and strangled her.
Brent Mott, of Southport on Merseyside, admitted killing his wife Kate, 35, who was deaf, early on 21 January.
But the 32-year-old denies murder at Liverpool Crown Court.
He claims he was acting in self-defence and was provoked, after his wife attacked him with a peeling knife when he came home from a night out.
The couple were going through a divorce but still lived in the same house.
Mr Mott told jurors his wife - also a nurse - was angry with him for planning to move to Australia and wanting more money in the divorce settlement.
He said he tried to disarm Mrs Mott but they tumbled to the floor and she banged her head on the marble fireplace.
He then strangled her with her pyjama top.
"I was upset at all she had put me through and all the mental and physical torture and lies and the fabricated injunction," he said.
"I'd described it as something went 'pop' in my head and a mental blackout.
"I just lost all self-control."
David Steer QC, defending, asked him: "Did you intend to kill her?"
"No, I never," he replied.
Mr Mott said he was "mortified and in shock" when he realised his wife was not breathing.
He said he did not call an ambulance because he did not want their young children, asleep upstairs, to see her.
He said he decided to take her to Southport Hospital - where they worked - and put her in their Ford Focus.
"But for some reason I couldn't do it," he said.
'Acted on impulse'
Instead, he drove to a field in Scarisbrick, Lancashire, and abandoned the car with his wife inside to make it look like a crash.
"I acted on impulse, nothing but impulse, I didn't know where to go," he said.
The next day he sent text messages to make it look like Mrs Mott was still alive. He also called the police to report her missing.
He denied his wife's earlier allegations that he was obsessed with sex and had sexually assaulted her. He said she verbally and physically bullied him.
The trial continues.