Banker remanded over wife's murder

A City banker appeared in court today charged with murdering his wife.

Neil Ellerbeck, 45, who worked for HSBC, is accused of strangling Katherine, 46, at their home.

Paramedics discovered Mrs Ellerbeck's body in Canford Close, Enfield, north London, on Friday.

Her husband was arrested at the scene and taken to an east London police station for questioning before being charged last night.

A post mortem examination gave the cause of death as asphyxiation and manual compression of the neck.

Ellerbeck, of Canford Close, Enfield, appeared at Enfield Magistrates' Court today.

He was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court) for a preliminary hearing on 23 February.

The Metropolitan Police said officers were called by the ambulance service to the house at 12.10pm on Friday.

Mrs Ellerbeck was pronounced dead at the scene.

A spokesman for London Ambulance Service said: "We were called on Friday 14th November just before 12.10pm, to reports of a person taken unwell at an address on Canford Close, Enfield.

"We sent a fast response car and an ambulance crew to the scene. Sadly, the patient had died at the scene."

Ellerbeck's employer today denied suggestions the accused might have lost his job amid the UK banking crisis.

A spokesman for HSBC said: "He (Neil Ellerbeck) is an employee of HSBC working in the asset management division."

Ellerbeck was based at the bank's Canary Wharf headquarters in London, he added.

According to the agenda for a presentation Ellerbeck gave on behalf of HSBC in Singapore last year, he was chief investment officer in the liquidity business of HSBC's asset management division.