PETER Morgan told police that he had "definitely" thought about killing his lover Georgina Symonds on the night before he strangled her.

In a second police interview after his arrest last January - played to a jury at Newport Crown Court - Morgan tells Detective Constable Virginia Davies: "I know I thought about it early Monday night."

He killed Miss Symonds the following morning at Pencoed Castle Bungalow near Llanmartin, a property of his where she lived, then wrapped her body in plastic sheeting and hid it in a workshop at Beech Hill Farm in Usk.

"I didn't just go down there and we had an argument," said Morgan.

"I don't know why I thought about it (on Monday evening). What the hell?

"I haven't planned it for days and weeks."

He told DC Davies it was "obviously premeditated" adding: "Perhaps I am masking the fact that I did want to kill her but I can't see why deep down I would have wanted that."

He said he must have thought about strangling her on Monday evening "but I obviously didn't think it through."

Earlier, Morgan had been asked by DC Davies about Miss Symonds' former partner, who hanged himself last November.

Morgan said the man had met Miss Symonds and their daughter on Saturday November 14 2015 and during that meeting he had asked her for a pen to write a suicide note.

Morgan said her last text message to the man had been that he should "do us all a favour" and kill himself.

Morgan said that after her former partner killed himself, Miss Symonds blamed him for the death.

He said he had advised her not to reply to the man's abusive texts, "not to retaliate, just leave them."

She had, he said, believed this had somehow contributed.

Asked by DC Davies how often Miss Symonds blamed him, Morgan replied: "It was getting more regular."

He added that the situation had worsened after Christmas, that he had been "hurt" and wanted her to stop.

In a third police interview, Morgan told DC Davies he had loved Miss Symonds.

"I gave everything up for her, gave up a 22-year marriage for her and half my companies and properties to my wife, to be with her," he said.

"She was my life, really. We just got on really well."

He said Miss Symonds was "very attractive" with an "hourglass figure."

But she had told him she suffered from a bipolar disorder and got very anxious when her former partner texted her - but "she just could not let it go."

He said she had drunk vodka and taken cocaine for several weeks after her father killed himself in April 2015 and had partly blamed herself for his death as she had not answered a call he made to her the day before he died.

Then, after her former partner died seven months later, "she was just drinking and sniffing cocaine."

"Because she was blaming me, I could not do anything to snap her out of it," Morgan told DC Davies.

"I was on eggshells with her.

"Up until the middle of November it (our relationship) was perfect."

Once again during the interview Morgan repeatedly expressed disbelief at what he had done.

When the subject of Miss Symonds' five-year-old daughter came up, he said: "I can't believe what I've done. How the hell is she going to cope?"

Of Miss Symonds blaming him for the social services becoming involved and threatening to kill herself if her daughter was taken from her, Morgan said that though he had nit been responsible for their involvement, it was "stressing me out."

He said he had been Miss Symonds' "sugar daddy" and had given her £1,000 a week.

Asked by DC Davies about his life, Morgan - now 54 - said he had hated school and left aged 15 with no qualifications.

The former Caerleon comprehensive school pupil said he had "a good childhood."

After school he had worked for his father, before setting up on his own a business building poultry sheds.

Over the years he had moved into property development and owned several companies with his wife.

He said he had property worth "about £20 million."

DC Davies asked Morgan at the third police interview if he had any mental health problems, to which he replied: "Obviously I have, haven't I?"

He said he and Miss Symonds had got on very well together until the last year.

But he admitted that during their relationship he had been seeing other women.

He said his sexual relationship with Miss Symonds had been important to him and believed it was important to her too.

He said he had not expected back any of the money he spent on her. DC Davies asked him if he knew Miss Symonds had worked as an escort and was it that capacity that he had met her.

He replied that he did know of her work and she had been when he met her, but that he had met her because of that.

He said she had given up being an escort and he had not been happy about her doing it.

"Did that impact on your relationship with her?" asked DC Davies. "No, I don't think so," said Morgan.