The businessman accused of being “delusional” when he strangled his lover has told a jury: “I am still not convinced she wasn’t cheating.”

Alan Brough, 65, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder his lover at his home in Halliday Drive, Walmer.

He had refused to answer police questions after his arrest in May 2017 when his alleged victim was found unconscious.

But today he took the witness stand at Canterbury Crown Court and was asked: “Do you deny strangling her?”

Brough told the jury: “No. I don’t deny that. I also accept that I was responsible and I wasn’t acting in self defence.”

The father-of-two, who left school to work for his father’s company, told how he married when he was 19 years old.

The court heard the couple separated in 2008, adding: “I had some good times and some bad or difficult times.”

"He thought she had been having an affair and that he had flipped and got her round the neck..." prosecutor Eloise Marshall QC

The jury heard from a previous lover, who he met in 2013, who claimed he became delusional accusing her of having affairs.

The alleged victim has also claimed he made allegations against her in the run up to the attack

He was asked by his barrister: “Do you accept you are delusional?”

Brough told the jury that despite both women denying having affairs, he didn’t believe them.

He secretly placed cameras at his home and then turned to a Canterbury-based firm of private detectives.

He employed them to follow his lover in March 2017 at a cost of £600 because he believed she was being unfaithful.

But the alleged victim told the jury: “I just couldn’t understand why. I have never had an affair in my life, for goodness sake.”

In May 2017, Brough – who has denied attempted murder - made an emergency call to police at 10.20pm, telling the operator he thought he had killed his partner.

Prosecutor Eloise Marshall QC said:“He went on to say that he thought she had been having an affair and that he had flipped and got her round the neck.

“At the time he was making the call, the woman was struggling to breathe and Brough could be heard begging her to breathe and begging her to stay alive.

“He can be heard saying: ‘Come on ..come on breathe!’" she told the jury.

The trial continues.