An Ashtead lawyer has been found guilty of stabbing his wife to death.

After more than 24 hours deliberation, the jury at Guildford Crown Court today returned a unanimous guilty verdict for Richard Davies Jones, who stood accused of murdering his wife Laura on December 1 last year.

The judge then dismissed the jury as impact statements were read out from Mrs Davies Jones' family, due to the harrowing nature of them.

During the trial, the jury heard how Davies Jones, 33, was found slumped across his dead wife, who had died from a stab wound to her throat, in the snow outside their home in Ashtead last December.

Mr Davies Jones, who also had a knife wound to his neck, denied murder and claimed his wife stabbed him before fatally stabbing herself.

He claimed he had suffered years of abuse at the hands of his wife, yet never hit her back, even when she grabbed his testicles and attacked his mother.