THE family of a York millionairess listened in horror as they heard how a frenzied hammer attack by her estranged husband left her looking like a “car crash victim”.

British Airways pilot Robert Brown allegedly bludgeoned to death his wife Joanna, who grew up in Badger Hill in York, at their sprawling marital home in Ascot, after a row over a pre-nuptial agreement.

Members of the public gallery broke down in tears at Reading Crown Court as they were told graphic details of the 40 injuries she suffered under a hail of blows from a claw hammer.

Pathologist Ashley Fegan-Earl said the mother-of-two sustained injuries to her hands and arms as she defended herself against the attack at her Berkshire mansion, and suffered fractures only usually seen in road accidents.

The court earlier heard Brown, a keen trail-runner, had dug a grave in a secluded corner of the Queen’s Windsor estate weeks before the murder on October 31 last year.

On the night of the attack, after dropping their two children at his new girlfriend’s house, he allegedly dragged the body to the site and dumped it in a coffin-sized plastic garden crate modified to make it waterproof.

Brown, 47, put his hands over his eyes as the court was shown the box where Mrs Brown was found wrapped in a bin bag and zipped inside a black surfboard bag.

Inside the crate with the body, police found two pairs of latex gloves, blood-stained duct tape, cable ties and a mallet.

Giving evidence, forensic archaeologist Professor John Hunter said judging by the root growth in the 4ft-deep hole and the slumping of the sides, it would have been dug “at least a few weeks” before Mrs Brown’s body was dumped.

Brown, of Winkfield, near Ascot, admits killing his wife but denies murder. He also denies obstructing a coroner from holding an inquest.

The case continues.