Pilot 'threatened wife with knife'

RELATIVES of a millionairess killed by her estranged husband hired a bodyguard to protect her after he "attacked" her with a kitchen knife, a jury heard today.

British Airways jumbo jet captain Robert Brown allegedly threatened to kill Joanna as their relationship fell apart.
Jurors heard that even on her honeymoon, the mum-of-two feared her marriage had been a "mistake".
Diana Parkes, the 46-year-old's mother, said family members had hated the long-haul pilot from the outset, while Joanna's father Christopher, had warned their union would "end in trouble".
He even encouraged his daughter to sign a pre-nuptial agreement for this reason, she told the court.
Overcome with emotion and at times pausing to fight back tears, Mrs Parkes told Reading Crown Court how her distressed daughter had called, at around 7am on July 17 2007, to say "Robert had attacked her with a knife".

Accused ... pilot Robert Brown

Mrs Parkes said: "She said that he had put his hand, one hand, around the back of her neck and with the other hand, he pointed the knife to her chest.
"It was a big knife that she had just bought. It was huge."
Mrs Parkes said her terrified daughter had asked her husband what would would happen to the children if he killed her.
His answer was, "You'll be dead and I'll be in jail", she told the court.
The alleged incident took place at around 10.30pm after Joanna had dinner with neighbours and a friend, Andy Wilson.
At the time, Brown, 47, was convinced she was having an affair, jurors heard.
The court was told how she later called her close friend, Belinda Skudder, asking in a "little voice", "Can you come over?"
When Mrs Skudder arrived at her mock-Tudor home, Joanna was standing on the doorstep looking "absolutely terrified".
Mrs Skudder said: "She looked like a rabbit in the headlights, with her eyes bulging out of her head when I arrived there."
The court heard the pair locked themselves in the kitchen for fear of Brown who was still in the house, before later curling up together, locking the door to the stairs.
Mrs Skudder added: "We didn't want him to come in."
Joanna left for her mother's home on the Isle of Man the next day and while there, Mrs Parkes said she overheard a telephone conversation between her daughter and Brown.
During the phone call he apparently threatened her over the alleged knife incident.

Mrs Parkes told the court: "He said if you tell anyone about that, it'll be the worse for you."
Not long after, Joanna returned to Tun Cottage, their sprawling marital home in Ascot, Berkshire, where she lived with "a friend".
When questioned over the status of the so-called "friend", Mrs Parkes said: "This was a bodyguard. We actually employed a bodyguard."
Brown, of Winkfield, Berks, admits killing his wife but denies murder and obstructing a coroner from holding an inquest.