A BANKRUPT businessman who is accused of killing a Cranage cattery owner he was having an affair with spent several hours cleaning the front of his house just hours after Diana Lee’s body was found.

David Ryan, 47, of Byrom Street, Hale, is accused of bludgeoning 54-year-old Diana Lee to death, mutilating her body and then setting four fires at her home in Cranage in an attempt to destroy the evidence.

At Chester Crown Court on June 20, electrician Thomas Ball told the court he had seen Ryan cleaning the front of his property on Byrom Street for more than two hours on August 9.

Mr Ball, who lives opposite Ryan and had been sat in the front bedroom on the first floor of his home doing invoices between 1pm and 3pm, said: “He was cleaning his fence, cleaning the road, the steps going down into the house and going into the cellar.

“He was using a hose pipe and a brush for the road. He was using a paint brush to clean the fence and gate.

“He was cleaning really thoroughly.

“It went on for a couple of hours.”

Mr Ball told the court Ryan had been cleaning the front of his property when he first saw down at his desk but did not know how long it had been going on beforehand.

“I thought it was odd that he was cleaning the fence with a paint brush,” added Mr Ball.

“Several people walked past while he was doing this and I could hear him telling people what he was doing.

“I thought it was odd that he was telling those people what he was doing.

“They weren’t asking him what he was doing – he was just telling them as they walked past.”

Mr Ball told the court that Ryan was fanatical about cleanliness and would make sure that the bins were in order in the alleyway and that things were in the right bin.

He said that he had never seen Ryan clean in this way before but he could not say for certain that it had never happened.

The case continues.