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A BRITISH Airways captain who killed his millionairess wife before burying her in a pre-prepared grave has been acquitted of her murder but jailed for 26 years after admitting manslaughter. Robert Brown, 47, thought he had been "stitched up" by a prenuptial agreement which would have cut him out of his estranged wife's fortune.So days before a final settlement hearing at the High Court he bludgeoned Joanna Brown to death with a claw hammer in their sprawling home before burying her in a grave dug earlier in Windsor Great Park. Brown was found not guilty of murder today but had already admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. The couple's two young children cowered in a playroom as the blows rained down on their 46-year-old mum. Brown then bundled her body into the boot of his car and dumped it in a make-shift coffin. The brutal killing took place on October 31 last year - just days after a landmark ruling at the Supreme Court in which judges decided a "marriage contract" was binding. Less than 10 days later, the pair had been due to attend the High Court for a final hearing to resolve their own financial disputes. Brown hit Joanna at least 14 times around the head before scooping the children into his Volvo 4x4. He wrapped Mrs Brown's body in plastic sheeting, placed a bin-liner over her head to "avoid leaving bloodstains" and dumped her in the car.Brown's daughter later told police she heard her parents "hitting each other" before she watched "dad put mum in the car because he ... hurt her". He left the children at home and drove to Windsor Great Park where he had already buried a garden crate. He was arrested the next day after police called to investigate her disappearance and found spots of blood on her drive and in the mansion's hallway. The keen cross-country runner later confessed to her killing, leading officers directly to the secluded burial site. An archaeologist suggested the grave could have been dug a "matter of weeks earlier" but Brown told police he had put it in the ground as long ago as January 2009 as a symbolic gesture to bury the "sham" of his marriage.