I didn't care if she was dead or alive: Lynda Casey's killer Peter Ling

Among those signed up for Mrs Casey’s October 2006 further education course in horticulture at the Sutton College of Learning for Adults (Scola) was gardener Peter Ling.

Ling, already running his own professional landscape gardening company in Wallington, primarily wanted a Royal Horticultural Society qualification to further his career.

But the 50-year-old, who had been married to wife Deborah for more than 20 years admitted he was also looking for someone on a “sexual level”.

He confessed to the Old Bailey: “When you’ve had the same meal for 20 years, you want to try something different.”

In 2006 Mrs Casey and Ling started an extra-marital affair and after he “took the bull by the horns” they went on a week-long holiday to Devon.

It was a relationship that would end with Ling in the dock charged with her murder.

On the surface Mrs Casey, lived a seemingly normal suburban life, she was married for 20 years to her second husband, Anthony Wisby, and lived in The Drive, Coulsdon, a wealthy tree lined avenue in south Croydon.

The street in which Lynda Casey lived

The teacher had previously been married to Alan Casey, with whom she had three daughters - Emma, Charlotte and Jennifer.

The 54-year-old was a tireless worker who had two jobs, one at Croydon’s Parkside doctor’s surgery and the other teaching keen gardeners at Scola.

In the classroom, or garden, Mrs Casey’s students considered her an “inspiration”.

Jacky Cross, from North Cheam, who was in the same gardening class as Ling, described her as being a “wonderful teacher”.

The 55-year-old said: “She was a lively person and she really inspired people. If you were having trouble with your projects she gave you the confidence that got you through it.

“Ever since I was her student I look at my garden at think ‘what would Lynda do with this?’. It’s really sad to know she’s not around anymore.”

“Peter was in the same class as I was. I remember he was a cheeky man. He was usually the one who started the jokes. He also seemed to come across as a very interesting person, who cared a lot about wild life.

“We were such a nice group and we would usually go out for a drink after class.”

Neighbour Tamasin Coates: “She seemed a very kind, pleasant woman. I was particularly impressed with her charity work. She opened her garden to the public one summer to raise money for the NSPCC.

The garden was particularly beautiful and a lot of hard work had gone into transforming a suburban plot into something so special.”

Mrs Casey was nominated for a Croydon Champions award in 2005 for her work as part of the reception team at Parkside Medical Centre in Sanderstead.

Practice manager Jean McPhail, who worked with Mrs Casey at the centre, said: “She was a very hard worker and will be sadly missed by the whole team.”

But behind the apparently perfect suburban facade lay an entirely different picture of infidelity and betrayal.

For Mrs Casey, the Old Bailey heard, had a succession of lovers throughout both of her marriages.

One relationship in the 1980s, ended in a violent attack on the mother-of-three.

Undeterred Mrs Casey went on to have several more affairs before and during her next marriage to Mr Wisby.

The couple eventually became estranged from one another and slept in separate bedrooms but remained under the same roof for “financial reasons”.

In 2002 Mrs Casey met Ian Tolfrey, again through her gardening course, and the pair soon embarked on an affair that would continue up until her murder in August last year.

Her youngest daughter Emma de Waal told the jury her mother was “besotted” with Mr Tolfrey and even labelled Fridays her “Ian Day”.

Mrs Casey ran her life - and her lovers - to a strict timetable, having specific days of the week for each man.

She met Mr Tolfrey at her allotment in Croydon on Wednesdays and her daughter’s flat on Fridays and then Ling on Thursdays and Saturdays.

By the summer of 2009, Ling began “falling in love” with his teacher and he soon sought to find out whether she felt the same.

Through a combination of his own insecurities and Mrs Casey’s busy lifestyle Ling began to suspect his lover was seeing another man.

One weekend, after a trip to the Hampton Court Flower Show, Mrs Casey printed off some garden photos from her Yahoo email account on Ling’s home computer.

But she forgot to “log-off” and Ling had access to over 1,300 of her emails, spanning her entire relationship with Mr Tolfrey.

Over the next week Ling ploughed through the intimate details of Mrs Casey’s relationship with her other lover.

Then on August 1, armed with a heightened sense of suspicion and anger, he arranged to meet Mrs Casey at Wisley’s Royal Horticultural Gardens to “have it out with her” over what he had read.

The meeting ended in a “massive fight” and Mrs Casey, according to her friends, was “intimidated” and “nervous” of Ling.

A week later, on August 8, having received dozens of apologetic text messages from Ling, Mrs Casey again agreed to meet him, this time at the Ramblers Rest in Chipstead.

It was to be the last time anyone would see her alive.

The pub car park in Chipstead where the fateful couple met

The pair walked about a mile into Banstead woods and once in a secluded copse Ling began to quiz her further about other men.

Ling claimed in court that in a bid to win him over, Mrs Casey had sex with him but he continued to press her about his sexual performance compared to other men.

He claimed she taunted him about the size of his manhood and he snapped picking up the nearest object, a rock, and smashed it repeatedly into her head and face.

Ling dragged her battered body behind a log and partially covered her with leaves.

Under police interview Ling said: “I didn’t want her to die. I definitely didn’t think I had killed her.

“I thought she might be seriously injured but I would be able to call an ambulance when I came back.”

But when he found her mobile phone in her car, Ling discovered dozens of intimate texts, images and one video in particular of Mrs Casey and another man.

He said: “I found graphic sexual images of her making love to another person. It destroyed everything, I’d given her my heart and she had torn it out.

“I couldn’t imagine anything worse. I didn’t mean anything to her, it was all pretense. I saw all these images and they went back two years.

“She told me she hadn’t been with anyone since she got married to her husband."

Ling claimed he went back to the woods to find her but was simply trying to hide Mrs Casey’s car.

He said: “I could have called an ambulance but she had trashed my heart, ruined my world. My life was ruined and so was her family's. I walked back to my van and just drove off, I didn’t care any more.

“I didn’t know if she was dead or alive but, because of the images I had seen, I didn’t have any conscience.”

According to John Coffey QC, prosecuting, Ling “left her for dead” and fled to Somerset where he contemplated suicide before eventually being arrested on August 12.

Lynda Casey’s naked, partly decomposed body was found a day later, on August 13, by sniffer dogs in Banstead Woods.