An obsessive and controlling husband had faked a message from the police complaints body telling his wife to go to Rhyl police station to identify his body.

Mark Perry, aged 46, had also turned up at a refuge with a neighbour's child claiming to be a family member and seeking the whereabouts of his wife.

The story was told at Llandudno court where Perry, a Jehovah's Witness, of Sandringham Avenue, Rhyl, pleaded guilty to stalking.

When he was sent for sentence at Mold crown court next month and refused bail he protested, near to tears: "I love my wife. I don't want to cause her any stress at all."

The charge accuses him of between the end of July and beginning of August stalking Ysabel Andrea Perry and causing her serious harm or distress by sending texts and WhatsApp messages and trying to seek her whereabouts.

The court heard that in one message Perry told his wife : "Sorry for the suffering I've caused you over the years. I'm unravelling it with Jehovah's help."

Prosecuting, Diane Williams said his wife had endured threats and control and a domestic violence protection order had been granted. She'd had "disturbing" messages and texts.

Graham Parry, defending, said the couple were Jehovah's Witnesses and they had been in discussion with elders which he preferred to the justice system to deal with their difficulties.

Mr Parry said : "From the Jehovah's Witness point of view there's only one way a couple can separate - it's adultery, and neither has committed adultery.

"His wife has now gone to another part of the country in a refuge that's safe.

"He does threaten to take his own life. He does seem fairly desperate to try and get what he thought who was his wife back."

Added Mr Parry :"He doesn't fit the mode of most defendants. It's an unusual case".