A man has been convicted of murdering his wife after a drunken row at their Chessington home.
Keith Bettison, 73, was found guilty of killing Ildiko Bettison, 48, by a jury at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.
He will appear at the same court for sentencing on a date to be set in January.
Bettison called police at just after 1.15am on October 31, 2020 claiming to have killed his wife at their home on Raynard Close, the court heard.
Officers and the London Ambulance Service found Mrs Bettison in the bedroom of the property, unresponsive. She had suffered facial injuries.
The Hungarian-born victim was pronounced dead at the scene, despite paramedics battling to save her.
Bettison was arrested at the scene and was charged later that same day with his wife’s murder.
On the night of the murder, the couple had been drinking heavily and had been heard by neighbours to be arguing loudly inside their home, the court had heard.
Despite later pleading not guilty to the offence, when officers questioned him at the address, Bettison said: “I killed the b****, what more do you want to know.”
A friend of Mrs Bettison told the court how the couple’s relationship had deteriorated after Bettison resigned from his job, becoming unemployed in June 2020, and that the arguments and alcohol abuse had escalated in the months leading up to the murder.
Detective Chief Inspector Vicky Tunstall, of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said: “This was a needless act of extreme violence fuelled by uncontrolled anger and alcohol.
“No amount of remorse on the part of Keith Bettison will bring Ildiko back to her family. Due to his actions their extended family has lost them both and our thoughts are with them today.”
