Judge's mistress denies new story

Ms Sparrow has been pushing for the new inquest for years

The mistress of a judge who died in a fire in his shed has denied changing her version of events before his death.

Kerry Sparrow was giving evidence at the second inquest into the death of Andrew Chubb, 58, in 2001.

She initially told police he had phoned her on the day he died telling her he been on the roof of Portsmouth Crown Court thinking of harming himself.

But in a statement given to her solicitor two months later, she did not mention the threats.

Ms Sparrow, 38, told the inquest in Glastonbury on Thursday that the statement had been taken when she was heavily sedated and that she only read it for the first time on Wednesday.

She insisted that he had never used the words "harm myself".

"No he didn't say that. He said: 'I might as well jump off the roof than face her (his wife).'," she said.

"He said it in a jokey manner. I suppose I was thinking he was going to harm himself."

She denied changing her version of events because it did not fit into her own theory of how he died.

And she also denied using the inquest as a platform for her own ends.

Mss Sparrow told the hearing her lover would not have killed himself and he was more "distressed than depressed" about his marriage.

Mr Chubb was married for 34 years, but had asked his wife Jennifer for a divorce only hours before his death.

Mrs Chubb now lives in Australia and will not be attending the hearing.