RAF officer appeals against conviction for wife murder

A senior RAF officer convicted of murdering his wife has launched an appeal.

Lawyers representing Sqn Ldr Nicholas Tucker claim that his conviction at Norwich Crown Court last month was unsafe.

They hope that the appeal will be heard by the Court of Appeal in London by the end of the year.

Tucker, 46, who was based at RAF Honington, Suffolk, was jailed for life after a jury found him guilty.

Jurors heard that Tucker's wife Carol, 52, was found lying face down in the river Lark at Lackford, Suffolk, in July 1995 after the couple's car left the road.

The prosecution said Tucker throttled his wife and held her under the water then staged the accident to cover his tracks.

Tucker denied the allegation and said he veered off the road to avoid two deer.

During a 13-day trial the prosecution alleged that Tucker was infatuated with Dijana Dudukovic, 21, when he killed his wife.

He met Miss Dudukovic, a Serbian interpreter, during a six-month tour of duty with the United Nations in the former Yugoslavia. During the trial, the court was told that the couple engaged in an ill-fated affair during which Tucker's attempts to make love to her proved unsuccessful. Miss Dudukovic has since married and now lives in Switzerland.