Mother's last call from 'overdose victim'

Dena Thompson, 43, denies murdering her husband

The mother of man allegedly murdered by his wife with a drugs overdose has told how she spoke to him the week before he died.

The court has heard Julian Webb died from an overdose of aspirin and antidepressant.

At the time it was thought to be suicide, but an open verdict was recorded at his inquest.

Mr Webb's wife, Dena Thompson, 43, of Larks Rise, Cullompton, Devon, denies murdering him at the house they shared in Yapton, West Sussex.

Mr Webb's mother, Rosemary Webb, said her son phoned her and talked about orchids and a fishing trip he was planning with a friend the week before his death on his 31st birthday in 1994.

Mrs Webb told the Old Bailey on Wednesday: "They were going to go out fishing on his birthday the following week.

"He seemed very happy, chirpy. He sounded very happy, very keen. It is the last conversation I can recall."

It is alleged by the prosecution that Dena Thompson tricked her husband into taking the drugs in small amounts in the last few days of his life.

But Mrs Thompson claimed he was depressed and may have taken his own life.

Death benefit

Prosecuting, Michael Birnbaum told the court the bitter taste of the anti-depressants, prescribed for Mrs Thompson, could have been disguised with curry or other spicy food.

He said Mrs Thompson had been leading a double life.

She had defrauded the building society where she worked of £23,000 and her marriage to Mr Webb had been bigamous because her divorce from her first husband had not been completed, he said.

Mr Birnbaum said another motive for killing her husband could have been money, as she asked the newspaper advertising salesman's employer about a £36,000 death benefit within hours of him dying.

The court heard since her husband's death, Mrs Thompson had married again and then divorced.

The trial continues.