Allen ruined my life - mistress

Eunice Yabsley: No self pity

John Allen's ex-mistress has spoken of her regret at meeting the triple killer.

Eunice Yabsley said Allen, convicted of murdering his wife and two children in 1975, had ruined her life.

Sixty-seven-year-old Mrs Yabsley was having an affair with Allen, 68, in Salcombe, south Devon when he killed wife Patricia and children Jonathan, seven, and Victoria, five.

After the affair ended, she wrote a book about the events, entitled Presumed Dead, which led to the police re-opening the investigation.

It has ruined my life but I am not complaining about that. At least I have had my life and lived to see my grandchildren

Eunice Yabsley

She said: "I think he is a psychopath.

"He is incapable of understanding how another person feels.

"Not that I thought then he was a psychopath, I did not. It takes a really long time to get to know someone."

Mrs Yabsley was herself interviewed by police after the disappearance of Mrs Allen and the children.

She said: "To begin with, I was convinced he could not have done it, because you have to realise the enormity of the thing I was being asked to believe.

Patricia Allen's body has never been found

"But over the years and towards the end of our relationship, I gradually came to see it in a different light."

She did not go to the authorities because "I had nothing else to tell them at the time.

"Except I have learned a few things during the course of the trial that I did not know before."

She added: "It has ruined my life but I am not complaining about that.

"At least I have had my life and I lived to see my grandchildren. So I am not going to sit and wallow in self-pity."