A MARRIED police officer has been found not guilty of murdering his long-term lover.

Killer Timothy Brehmer, 41, of Hordle, New Forest, was accused of strangling nurse Claire Parry to death at the Horns Inn pub car park in West Parley on May 9.

Brehmer, a Dorset Police officer, admitted causing the death of Mrs Parry but denied murder.

Following two hours and 50 minutes hours of deliberations, an 11-person jury found him unanimously not guilty following a trial at Salisbury Crown Court.

Brehmer will be sentenced for manslaughter today after it was adjourned on Tuesday. 

We will be live blogging the sentencing today. 

The court heard how the pair had met in 2005 through work and began an "on and off relationship" a few years later.

Brehmer told the court the affair was "compartmentalised" from their marriages and they wouldn't speak when big life events occurred.

However, the police officer said things "went bonkers" when Mrs Parry's marriage broke down as a result of the affair, which led them to meet at the Horns Inn on May 9.

After failing to remove her from the car so he could go kill himself, Brehmer "bundled in" to push her out.

Mrs Parry died of a brain injury due to compression to the neck after the struggle in the car.

Brehmer said his arm was around her chest and "must have slipped up in the melee".