I battered my lover to death in 30 seconds
of madness, confesses Dubai Briton

By ANDY RUSSELL and DAVID WILLIAMS
A British businessman suspected of murdering his missing ex-lover in Dubai confessed that she died after he had battered her during '30 seconds of madness'.

Mark Arnold, 42, made the tearful admission in a series of dramatic telephone calls to the Daily Mail from the police cell where he is being held on suspicion of killing Kerry Winter. 

He said she died as the couple slept in a car hours after a furious row led to him hitting her three times on the head with a stick.

Arnold, an executive with an interior design firm, said he hid her body on his boat and went to work as normal before returning the following evening to dump it at sea.

The father-of-one, from Stoke-on-Trent previously denied killing Miss Winter, 35, a South African who lived with him for five years.

But he said he had decided to confess because of wild stories circulating about her fate and he feared being 'fitted up'.

He said: 'It was 30 seconds of madness .. . I think I hit her three times . . . she died because of me.'

Miss Winter's family have begged him to reveal what happened amid accusations that he had been seen attacking her with a baseball bat in the stairwell of her villa.

They claimed that he had stalked and threatened her. But Arnold had denied killing her, claiming she was alive when last saw her on August 20  -  the day she vanished.

But during three calls from the Al Rashidiya police station, he changed his story.

'It was a total accident,' he said. 'I am not a violent man and I am not a murderer. It was an accident but she died because of me and I am willing to take my punishment. I am prepared to admit to the truth but I do not want to be fitted up.'

According to Arnold, he bumped into Miss Winter in a bar and they argued over their often volatile affair. This had ended in May when he refused to divorce his estranged British wife Dianne, who lives in Dubai with their teenage son.

Arnold, who had also become engaged to a British girl called Tanya, said: 'We had a drink but it turned into a slanging match.

'She left and I followed her. I told her, "This has got to stop, we have got to be civilised". She gave me some verbal abuse and drove to the villa and I followed.

'She came up to me and hit me and we got into a scuffle. I hit her with a stick which I had picked up in the villa grounds  -  I think I hit her three times. Kerry slipped but she got up. It was 30 seconds of madness for the both of us. I assaulted her.

'There is no excuse. I have never assaulted anyone before. I am a family man and this was 30 seconds which ruined my life.

'I have heard reports I hit her with a baseball bat but it was a stick about the size of a 300mm ruler  -  maybe about 25mm thick.'

He alleged Miss Winter, who worked for a conference and exhibitions company, was bleeding from head wounds but agreed to go with him in his car to a quiet spot where they could talk.

He claimed to have cleaned the blood from her wounds and the pair then fell asleep.

'When I woke up, she was dead. I was horrified, so scared. I can only think that she had a thin skull or something like that because she was OK when we got in the car.

'I was scared. I tried to cover my tracks and put Kerry on my boat and left it anchored off shore.

'I returned after work and drove around for four or five hours and ended up putting Kerry's body into the sea. I do not know where. I wish I had never gone anywhere near the villa. I wish I had swallowed my pride and my anger.'

Arnold then flew home to Britain where he spent three days before returning to Dubai.

Last night Miss Winter's brother, Kurt, 41, accused Arnold of changing his story for his own purposes.

'He has changed his story all along and spoken hogwash,' he said. 'We have prepared ourselves for Kerry's death but we won't rest until we find her body.

'Our legal advice is that if they don't find a body, he may only face a manslaughter charge and a lower sentence. He's got a top lawyer and may be thinking about that.

'She was living in fear of her life, she knew he was stalking her every move. We want justice for Kerry.'

Sources in Dubai suggest Arnold will be charged with manslaughter, which carries a maximum ten-year sentence. If a body is found and forensics indicate a savage beating, he is likely to face a murder charge. This carries the death sentence although this is rarely carried out.