Farmer said wife killed herself

Postmistress Jane Wilson was a keen sportswoman

A Cumbrian farmer accused of killing his wife with a tractor told his lover she threw herself under the vehicle, a court has heard.

Robert Wilson, 40, denies murdering his wife Jane, 53, at their farm in Kirkandrews-on-Eden, near Carlisle, on 1 December 2007.

Kathy McNeil, his 48-year-old lover, said he previously told her Mrs Wilson had died of lung cancer in early 2006.

She told Carlisle Crown Court on Wednesday he later changed his story.

Mrs McNeil said she made her first visit to his farm in December.

Nervy visit

She said: "He took me into the lounge in front of the fire where he sat down on the floor and I knelt down and he said, 'I've to tell you something'.

"He said 'Jane didn't die of cancer. She threw herself underneath the tractor. I ran over her head'.

"He said his wife's sister, Elizabeth, believed she had 'done it on purpose'."

Mrs McNeil said Mr Wilson was "nervy" and "constantly looking at the door" during her visit.

The couple met when Mrs McNeil was working at a bar in Marbella and she later moved from Spain to be with him.

Mrs McNeil revealed she made her own internet investigations into Jane Wilson's death, but could find nothing.

The trial continues.