Wife dead in murder-suicide left diary detailing abuse

The wife of a former mayor of Cromer in eastern England detailed years of abuse in a diary, an inquest on the couple's murder-suicide heard Tuesday. The coroner found Andrea Johnson, 44, was shot by her husband, Keith, 58, who then took his own life, the Daily Mirror reported. Keith Johnson shot her with the gun she used to shoot clay pigeons after convincing her to return to their home for a talk Dec. 1. Andrea Johnson's diary suggests a decade of abuse that began not long after the couple married. "He doesn't seem bothered he is hurting me, said I either like it or lump it, he ain't going to change," she wrote years before her death. Keith Johnson was Conservative leader of the North Norfolk district council and for seven years mayor of Cromer, a coastal resort. But Brian Chadwick, Andrea's brother, said the public needs to know "the real man behind the precious chain of office." "I am deeply saddened that Andrea suffered in silence through more than a decade of abuse at the hands of that monster, Keith Johnson -- a man who we trusted and let into our lives," Chadwick said. "He was controlling, as well as physically, verbally and sexually abusive and when my sister tried to leave him, he killed her for it."