A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of his solicitor wife after she was found shot twice inside their family home.
Peter Hartshorne-Jones, 51, is accused of murdering Silke Hartshorne-Jones at their farmhouse in The Green, Barham near Ipswich, Suffolk.
He spoke only to confirm his name, age, address and to state his nationality as British when he appeared before Ipswich Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday morning via video-link from Bury St Edmunds’ police investigation centre.
He was remanded in custody to appear before Ipswich Crown Court on the same afternoon.
The court heard that police were called to the scene at 4.45am on Sunday and that Mrs Hartshorne-Jones was found on the floor upstairs inside the home with two gunshot wounds.
She was taken to Ipswich Hospital but died a short time later at 6.42am.
Detectives arrested Hartshorne-Jones, a registered gun dealer, on suspicion of murder. He was taken to Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre for questioning and charged with murder on Monday afternoon.
Prosecutor Peter Gair said a postmortem examination had confirmed that Mrs Hartshorne-Jones’ death was the result of two gunshot wounds.
He said forensic officers remained at the address in Barham as part of a two-staged approach in terms of the property – to be followed by further searches by police.
Judge Martyn Levett set a trial date for October 26 at Ipswich Crown Court.
A plea and trial preparation hearing will take place on July 29.
Jonathan Goodman, for the defence, made no application for bail and Hartshorne-Jones was remanded in custody.
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