Mr David Cocks QC, representing Nicholas Tucker in an appeal against his conviction, told the court that his client did not kill his wife in the hopes of establishing a permanent relationship with 21-year-old Dijana Dudukovic - a Slovenian translator.

Tucker, 46, was jailed for life in December 1997 after a jury at Norwich Crown Court found him guilty of strangling his wife Carol, 52.

During his trial before Mr Justice Gage it was alleged that Tucker was infatuated with Miss Dudukovic, who he met on a UN tour of duty in the former Yugoslavia, when he killed his wife.

Tucker denied allegations

Jurors heard how Mrs Tucker was found lying face down in the River Lark at Lackford, Suffolk, in July 1995 after the couple's car left the road.

At the trial, the prosecution said Tucker, who was based at RAF Honington, Suffolk, throttled his wife and held her under the water - then made it look like an accident..

He denied the allegation and said he veered off the road to avoid deer.

He said that what happened to his wife was a "tragic accident".

She had no long-term plans with him

Mr Cocks told the court that to suggest Tucker's "brief fling" with the interpreter was firm evidence "for a permanent relationship that he hoped to establish having got rid of his wife flew in the face of the sequence of events and the facts".

The counsel said: "The weakness we submit with the motive was that Dijana Dudukovic was, to Mr Tucker's knowledge, continuously involved with other men and she had no long-term plans to set up with him.

"Indeed, every time a relationship of hers came to an end the evidence was that she set up with someone other than Mr Tucker."

Miss Dudukovic has since married and lives in Switzerland.