Thames Ditton millionaire Martin Hale, who has been found not guilty of murdering his wife who disappeared nine years ago, has said he is looking forward to returning home.

The jury at Kingston Crown Court, consisting of seven men and five women, took 2hrs 55mins on Monday to come to the majority decision.

Mother-of-five Maureen Hale, 42, went missing from the family home in Embercourt Road on June, 22 1999, and has not been seen since.

Georgina Hale, who along with Mr Hale's other children stood by their father throughout the ordeal, cried in court when the verdict was read out, but Mr Hale himself did not react.

Mr Hale’s son Oliver read out a statement on behalf of the family after the trial.

He said: “The family would like to thank people for all the great and kind support that has been given to us and our father over the past nine years during our mother’s disappearance. We would like to ask the press now to respect our privacy.”

Martin Hale, 52, told reporters outside the courtroom, that he was looking forward to getting home.

He said: “It’s been quite traumatic. I am pleased to be out at last. [The verdict] has put some closure on it, but not a final closure - there are still some unanswered questions.”

When asked what he was going to do now he was a free man, Mr Hale said; “I haven’t made any decisions on anything yet.”

The jury heard throughout the two-week trial that Mr Hale had last seen his wife on June 22, 1999, when she told him she was going out.

The court also heard about Maureen Hale's infidelity during their marriage and that she had asked him for a divorce.

He maintained that although the two had discussed the fact that he was contesting the divorce on the day she disappeared, they did not argue.

He told the court during the trial that their relationship had only come to blows once in 1998, after he had secretly recorded her telling a friend that she had never loved him. He admitted that, at the time, he had hit her three or four times.

Mr Hale, 52, was charged with murder in June 2008, and walked free after having been in custody ever since.

Last week in court, both the prosecution and the defence criticised the police for the original investigation into Maureen Hale’s disappearance.

Mr Hale was arrested in July 1999 and again in July 2000, but not charged on either of those occasions.

Richard Christie QC, for the defence, said that the police had from the beginning centred their inquiries around one suspect and had not been “properly investigating the case”.

He said to the jury when summing up the case: “The existence of other potential candidates was not properly investigated by the police. [The defence] would respectively suggest to you that cases where one person is the focus are the very cases that are miscarriages of justice.”

Crispin Aylett QC, for the prosecution, also admitted in his closing speech to the jury that the police had been “slow off the mark” in their investigation.

But he told the jury last week: “It’s not your job to decide whether the defendant should have been charged by the police in 1999 or 2000.”