Ex-HSBC banker asked about delaying annual bonus, manager says

Former HSBC Holdings Plc banker Neil Ellerbeck, charged with strangling his wife, asked about delaying his annual bonus because he thought his marriage might soon end in divorce, an HSBC human resources manager said.

Victoria Prescott said in a witness statement read aloud by the court to a London jury yesterday that in late 2007 Ellerbeck contacted her to discuss postponing his bonus.

Ellerbeck, 46, told Prescott that he was going though "marital difficulties and divorce might be on the cards," she said in the statement read in London's Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey.

Ellerbeck, former chief investment officer of HSBC's global liquidity unit, was charged with murder on Nov. 17, days after his wife Katherine's body was found in their London home. Prosecutors claim he choked her to death. Ellerbeck denies murder. His defense lawyers will present their case later in the trial.

Prescott said Ellerbeck sought to discuss "options" and "I am not sure how I responded." She added that while employees sometimes ask for bonuses to be paid into bank accounts other than those where their salaries go, such requests have to be vetted. "I believe he was sounding me out."

Earlier yesterday, Julie Ring, who had an affair with Ellerbeck starting in 2002, said that he first told her he thought his wife was being unfaithful seven years ago.

"He said he had seen text messages," Ring said "They confirmed his suspicions were correct."

Neil Ellerbeck told Ring in 2002 that he suspected his wife Katherine was having affair with an old school friend, Martin Perry. Ellerbeck also began to suspect her of an affair with their children's tennis coach about three years ago, Ring said.

Perry said in testimony Sept. 29 that while he had discussed marrying Katherine Ellerbeck in text messages, he never had sex with her. Tennis coach and part-time plumber Patrick McAdam testified on Sept. 28 that he had sex with Katherine Ellerbeck over a two-year period.

Ring told the 12-member panel that Ellerbeck expected his wife to ask him for a divorce.

"Given the choice, he wanted to remain a family as it was better for the children, but he had fully accepted whatever was going to happen," she said.

Ring helped Ellerbeck move funds to a friend's bank account as he thought it would be "prudent" to set aside some money in the event of a divorce, Ring said. She told the judge she didn't think she had helped Ellerbeck conceal assets.

Ring said she and Ellerbeck met through work before he married and they had dated in their 20s. Ring said she had never seen anything that would indicate Ellerbeck had violent tendencies.