Murder charge pilot accuses son

A FRENCH PILOT charged with murdering his wealthy English lover yesterday accused her son of being responsible for her death.

Gaeton Beissy denied he punched and then stabbed Carolyn Taylor to death after a jealous row on 15 July last year. He told the Old Bailey that after she died in front of him he wanted to commit suicide.

Mr Beissy had moved in with the 54-year-old widow at her home near Dorking, Surrey, less than a year after a holiday romance in Corsica. The prosecution alleges he killed Mrs Taylor after a jealous row but Mr Beissy, 56, denied that he had been jealous. 'I was not jealous - I loved her. I believe I was no more possessive as she was possessive towards me.'

He said they had gone to bed happily on 14 July but were woken when Mrs Taylor's son, Mark, 24, had come into their room and started talking to her. 'I heard the words 'fuck . . . French', something like that,' Mr Beissy said. He had gone downstairs at her request, and when he returned he found her in the kitchen with Mark. 'She seemed to have her face battered with punches,' he said.

He said Mark had taken hold of a knife which was by the phone and at the same time Mrs Taylor had pushed past her son. She had screamed and turned round. 'She took two steps towards me. I jumped forward to try to help her. I held her - then I helped her to collapse,' he said. He had seen blood on her. 'I believed she was dead because she had no reaction any longer. I was in despair.'

Mr Beissy said he picked the knife off the floor and put it to his chest and told Mark to help him kill himself. 'Mark did not answer me - he fled through the window. I was crying and holding the knife to my chest because I was thinking that Carolyn was dead and I wanted to die too,' he said.

He said when he saw Mark and his sister Samantha shortly afterwards he said to them: 'You have killed your mother.' He told the jury: 'I meant the family. The children. I think that Mark was holding the knife, but I think the others were also responsible.'

The trial continues today.