A MAN accused of hitting his partner over the head with a metal pole had uncovered secret love messages from her priest, a court heard.

Leo McKnight, 59, of Epping Road, Roydon, is accused of common assault and attempting to murder his partner of 10 years, Marcia McKnight, at the home they shared with their four children on July 28 2010.

McKnight, who owns an estate agent's in Wood Green, told Chelmsford Crown Court today that his partner had grown increasingly close to the priest at her church in Hoddeston, inviting him to dinner regularly and picking him up from the airport.

Then, on a family holiday to Portugal, he found text messages from the priest on his partner's mobile phone, saying: 'Do you love me?' and 'I can't wait to hold you', as well as messages from his partner arranging to meet with yet another man.

“She said she would have breakfast and lunch with (the priest) and go for walks in the country,” said McKnight. “I realised this was a little bit more than just friendship.”

He added that his partner refused to share a room with him because the divorcee did not want to remarry.

“I thought about paying out for a private detective, but how can a detective go to a church,” he added. “I thought it was just a pack of lies, one after the other.”

He denies the charges and claimed that his partner had lashed out as he caught her on the phone to a male friend she had met in Scotland on the night of July 28.

“I was asleep and the next thing I heard was the dog, Toby, growling,” he said. “I went out and the spotlight hit me and Marcia on the telephone in the car. I thought 'what are you doing?'”

He said she told him she was speaking to a male friend she had met on a lone trip to Scotland the week before.

“I said, 'Did you stay in a hotel with him?' and she gave me a guilty look, so I grabbed her phone,” he added. “She kicked out with her high heels and hit me in the stomach.

“She said, 'You're going to go bankrupt, lose the business. I'm going to ruin you.'”

The police arrived at the house the same night and arrested McKnight.

The trial continues.