A chip shop owner has been cleared of murdering his wife

with scalding oil after telling a jury she accidentally tipped it

over herself.
Geoffrey Bran, 71, was accused of attacking his wife, Mavis
Bran, 69, at the Chipoteria in the village of Hermon,
Carmarthenshire, south-west Wales. Mavis Bran died six days
after the incident in which she suffered burns to 46% of her
body.
Bran denied hurling the oil over his wife, claiming she had
accidentally tipped the fryer over herself.
Giving evidence at the trial at Swansea crown court, Bran
said: “I turned around and saw her flying to the floor. I could
see the fat fryer moving forward on the table. Instantly the
legs fell off the edge and the weight of the oil tipped the whole
thing forwards. The oil must have moved things fast and it
was like a waterfall and landed on her chest.”
He said he moved his wife and sat her up to take off her oil
soaked clothes. He added: “I didn’t know if I was doing the
right thing to be honest. I just grabbed the bottom of her
jumper and pulled it over her head.”
He told her to run to their house and ask their lodger to call an
ambulance. He agreed in court it was “callous to the point of
inhumanity” not to check on his wife as he carried on serving,
telling customers there had been a “little accident”.
The jury heard Mavis Bran had started drinking red wine in
the morning and was over the drink-drive limit at the time of
the incident shortly before 1pm.
She told a friend and a paramedic before she died that her
husband was to blame. The paramedic, Allison Williams, told
the jury: “I asked her if she could explain what had actually
happened that day. She said: ‘My husband threw hot fat over
me.’ She just stated they’d had an argument.”
Mavis Bran died at Morriston hospital, Swansea, from
complications arising from her burns. Bran admitted the
couple often argued and had fallen out that day over the
cleanliness of the fryers and burnt fish.
Outside court, Geoffrey Bran stood next to a family
spokesman as she read out a statement asking that they be
allowed to “get on with our lives”.