'I've shot your girlfriend'

Mr Salmon met his wife while both were serving in the Army

A jealous wife accused of murdering her husband's lover admitted killing her in a text message, the Old Bailey has heard.

Paul Salmon said he was sitting in a business meeting when he received a message saying: "I have just shot Lorna. This is not a joke."

Mr Salmon has been giving evidence against his wife Rena, 43, who denies murdering Lorna Stewart in her beauty salon in Chiswick, west London on 10 September 2002.

He told the court: "I rang. I said: 'What have you done?' She said 'I have shot Lorna.'

"I said 'Is she dead?' She said 'I do not know.' "

Suicide attempt

Mr Salmon said his wife seemed "very calm and collected" and he told her to give herself up.

He recalled sending Ms Stewart a text message to ask if she was all right and taking a call from Ms Stewart's colleague Martine, who told him about the shooting.

"I hung up and went back into the meeting and said to my boss: 'I have got to go. My wife has just shot my girlfriend'," Mr Salmon told the jury.

Mr Salmon described his marriage to Rena as "on and off"

As he drove to Chiswick he tried to find out what had happened but his mobile phone battery ran out.

He was arrested for his own protection when he arrived.

Mrs Salmon and her husband lived in the same village Great Shefford, near Hungerford, in Berkshire, as Ms Stewart and her husband and the two couples had occasionally socialised.

After learning of the affair, Mr Salmon said his wife, a former Army corporal, had attacked Ms Stewart in her own home, attempted suicide and said she had thought about killing her own children.

Ms Salmon hung her head as the jury was shown the three-feet-long gun used to shoot Ms Stewart.

He described his marriage as happy "on and off" but said there was no going back once the affair came to light.

"My marriage has been past the point of no return for years," said Mr Salmon.

The trial continues.