Having finally admitted murder, jailed Prout led detectives to the spot where he concealed Kate, 55, in woods on the 276-acre estate after strangling her during a row over a divorce settlement.
Police search woodland on Redhill Farm in Redmarley
Debbie, who began dating Prout a year after he murdered Kate, had even launched a campaign to win his freedom.
He was jailed for life last year despite his wife’s corpse not being found.
Heartbroken Debbie yesterday told of the moment he finally admitted he had been lying to her all along.
She said: “He just confessed. He said: ‘I’m sorry, I did.’ Myself and my family are obviously devastated.
“My heart goes out to Kate and her family. I hope this gives them the chance to grieve properly for their sister and have a proper burial and somewhere where they can lay flowers.”
After the confession, Debbie warned Prout she intended to tell police immediately that he had admitted the murder.
Friends said yesterday the devastated mum-of-three had changed her Facebook status to single.
One pal said: “Debbie’s in turmoil. She’s been extremely loyal to Prout.
“I think Prout finally decided the game was up and he had to confess when people close to him started losing faith after he failed the lie test.”
Yesterday morning, Prout was taken from prison to his former marital home, Redhill Farm in Redmarley, Glos, handcuffed to a detective.
The home of Kate Prout and Adrian Prout
He was then driven up a dirt track beside the farmhouse in a police car and across a ploughed field to woods.Less than half an hour later, he was driven back across the same field before being returned to Rye Hill Prison near Rugby, Warks. Kate’s grieving family had pleaded with Prout to end their misery and tell police where he had hidden her body after a judge jailed him for a minimum of 18 years.
But he insisted Kate had walked out leaving her handbag, phone, passport and purse, which were found at the farm.
Prout remained silent even after failing a lie detector test which Debbie persuaded him to take three months ago.
Even the polygraphy expert who tested him said yesterday he begged the killer to admit his guilt to police and his fiancee.
Don Cargill, chairman of the British and European Polygraph Association, said: “I told him that according to my tests, he was clearly a murderer who should immediately do the honourable thing by Debbie, the police and Kate’s family.”
The farm was sold last month after being put on the market for £1.6million.
Debbie and 21-month-old Evie moved out two weeks ago to a smaller home in nearby Kempley.
Hairdresser Beccy Webb, 47, who lives less than half a mile from the farm, said last night: “I cannot believe she lived here in the village.
“A lot of people around here thought he did it.
“It is no surprise to me because I knew he had done it. But there will be people here who are really shocked.
“People trusted him – including his partner Debbie. She must be devastated to believe somebody for that long then to find out it was a lie.”
Parish councillor Mike Phillips, 76, who also lives in the village, added: “Everyone was shocked to learn that, having said for so long he had never done it, he had confessed.”
Divorced Prout originally bought the farm with teacher wife Kate for £820,000 in 2004 – four years after he and the farmer’s daughter wed.
He ran a successful pipe-laying firm and pheasant shoot at the farm and Kate had her own blueberry plantation.
But their marriage began to fall apart in 2006 and violent Prout was desperate to divorce Kate on terms which would allow him to remain at the farm.
It is thought he has admitted he strangled Kate in a shooting lodge at the farm on Bonfire Night 2007 after she demanded an £800,000 clean-break divorce he could not afford without selling the estate.
Kate’s brother Richard Wakefield said in a family statement last night: “We have always wanted Adrian to tell us where Kate’s body is. However, this news has obviously come as something of a shock to us. We would like to be given some time to come to terms with this news.”
Det Supt Simon Atkinson commented: “A detailed search of the location will be conducted next week. However, this will be a painstaking process so is likely to take some time.”
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/11/19/killer-adrian-prout-leads-police-to-where-he-buried-his-wife-s-body-115875-23572417/#ixzz1eVcHK8wH
