Judge leaves wife for gun siege barrister’s widow

A high court judge has left his wife of 29 years after an affair with the widow of Chelsea gun-siege barrister Mark Saunders. Sir Nicholas Mostyn, who was appointed as a judge in April after a successful career as a divorce lawyer, is now said to be in a relationship with Elizabeth Saunders (pictured above), and facing a divorce of his own.
 
Elizabeth was married to Mark Saunders, who was shot dead by police gunmen after a stand-off at his £2.2m London home in May 2008. Earlier this year she wept as she told an inquest that the couple were "very much in love" at the time of his death.
 
Her affair with Mostyn is thought to have begun before the inquest in October. But although Saunders, who uses her maiden name Clarke in her work as a family law barrister, and Mostyn had worked together on cases in the past, there has been no suggestion that their relationship started before the death of Saunders's husband.
 
Mostyn's wife Lucy, with whom he has four children aged between 12 and 23, is said to be reluctant to split from her husband but has instructed another leading divorce lawyer, Frances Hughes.
 
During his career at the bar Mostyn earned the nickname Mr Payout on account of the large sums of money he won for his clients in divorce cases. He may now have to pay out several million himself.
 
Among his clients have been the wives of former England footballer Ray Parlour and Sir Martin Sorrell, head of advertising giant WPP. He and Saunders worked together last year on the divorce of Earl Spencer from his second wife.
 
In October, a jury inquest ruled that armed officers had acted in a "necessary and reasonable" self-defence during the seige at Mark Saunders's Chelsea home in 2008, although the inquest also found major failings in the police operation.
 
The 32-year-old, who had an alcohol problem, had waved a shotgun out of the window of his home after a drinking session and was eventually shot dead by officers. ·