By Phil Coleman

Last updated 11:54, Wednesday, 12 November 2008

The "secret" lover of murder accused Robert Wilson told a jury that she had felt "safe" in his company.

Kathy McNeil

Kathy McNeil, 48, made the comment as she gave evidence yesterday on day six of his trial at Carlisle Crown Court.

The 40-year-old farmer and former Story Rail worker is accused of murdering his wife Jane, 53, at their Kirkandrews-on-Eden farm, near Carlisle, in December last year.

The prosecution say he staged a tractor accident either to kill his wife – a talented horse rider who was said to have worshipped her husband – or to cover up the fact that he had killed her earlier.

He has insisted her death had been a tragic accident. The trial has heard how after his wife’s death the defendant, said to be leading a double life in which he deceived both Mrs Wilson and his lover, claimed £400,000 on her life insurance.

He denies murder.

For nearly two-and-a-half hours yesterday, Mrs McNeil, at times close to tears, spoke of her relationship with Wilson, describing how he treated her to posh dinners and a lavish holiday.

She became his lover, she said, some time after they met in a bar in Spain where she worked.

The twice-married mother-of-two recalled her first meeting Wilson in October 2006, when he walked into the bar, ordered a Baileys with ice and began chatting.

Asked by prosecuting QC Brian Cummings how she felt about him when they later became a couple, she said: “Now I feel stupid, but he was a lovely guy and polite. I felt safe.”

Beginning her evidence, Mrs McNeil, a fluent French speaker who previously lived in France, said she separated from her husband in 2004.

To make money she took a number of jobs, including one in a bar in Marbella.

Recalling the moment she first saw Wilson, she said: “I was working in Roy’s Bar in Marbella when he came in. He ordered Baileys with ice. There were not many people in and he started talking.

“I remember him because he asked: ‘What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?’ I said: ‘So, what’s a nice person like you doing in a bar like this?’.”

Asked about how the encounter went, she said: “He was in Marbella for two or three weeks to relive memories of a holiday he’d had with his wife.

“He said she’d died at the beginning of 2006 of cancer. I felt sorry for him.

“He asked what I was doing there and I told him I had to work, and about my sons. He told me he’d lost the love of his life, someone called Liz, when she was 18.

“She was 18 when she died of a brain tumour. I thought what an unlucky guy. It was on the first night.”

Wilson told her he had a farm back in England and worked on the railways.

He returned the next night, again ordering a Baileys and ice, and again they talked. “It was easy to talk,” said Mrs McNeil. “He asked about my life and I told him about my ex. He asked if he could take me out to dinner. I said no. He asked several times and I said no.

“I was still fresh from my ex-husband and hurting.

“He asked for my number and I gave it to him and said: ‘Don’t harass me. If you do, I’ll just change my number’.

“I felt safe because he was going home.”

As he left the bar, she said, he grabbed her and she warned him to be careful to watch out for the beautiful but “expensive” prostitutes who worked in the area.

“He said why would I bother with them when I might have a chance with someone like you? It was forward, to me. It wasn’t threatening.”

Later in October, Wilson flew back to Spain and the two met for dinner, said Mrs McNeil, and he they had lunch at a very nice restaurant.

“That was always the case. He arrived at the flat with a taxi and I saw the taxi arrive. I’m on the third floor.

“I shouted to him that I’ll be down in a minute and he went to the boot of the car and took out a bunch of flowers, so I said: ‘In that case you’d better bring them up.’ I thought he was crazy. He ran up the stairs instead of taking the lift.”

She and Wilson later went to a piano bar and he told her about his wife, how she had loved horses and had been good at dressage.

They got on very well. After the holiday, he stayed in touch by phone, ringing her on his mobile morning and night.

When he spoke of his wife, it was with pride about her ability as a horsewoman, said Mrs McNeil, who confirmed that during one later visit to Spain their relationship became physical.

Mr Cummings asked if he ever commented on aspects of their relationship.

Mrs McNeil replied: “He commented on the size of my breasts. I thought that was disrespectful. The only thing he ever said [about his wife] was that Jane wasn’t sexual... He said that Jane had two children but he didn’t do kids. He didn’t have any.”

Mrs McNeil said her two sons, aged 17 and 28, meant everything to her, and her only one reservation about Wilson was his attitude to children.

She said: “He phoned at least a couple times a day.

“He had these terms of endearment. He’d always say: Hello my little sex kitten, or hello my darling.

“When he called me ‘my dear,’ I absolutely hated that term – I knew there was somebody there.”

She conceded there were times when Wilson seemed guarded on the phone. She later asked him about that and he said it was because Jane’s mother was very old and because of his wife’s sister. “He didn’t want to rub their noses in it,” said Mrs McNeil. “As it got further on, sometimes I thought why don’t you tell anyone?

“I didn’t understand it.

“Later on, I said I didn’t want to suddenly come as a surprise to people.”

He told her they could tell people about their relationship when they started a new life away from Carlisle.

Mrs McNeil described how she stood to get around 1.4 million euros from her divorce settlement following the sale of properties she and her ex-husband owned.

But she had cash flow problems and could not find a lawyer to take on the case.

She said: “As we got into a relationship, he said if we are going to be a couple I needed to get closure on it and I needed to get a lawyer and sort it out. The only way you can get closure is if you get a settlement because it will always be hanging over us.”

Wilson then offered to give her the money she needed for a barrister, she said. She refused at first but then agreed on condition that she could later pay him back.

Mrs McNeil was then asked about a holiday she and Wilson had last year, which began the day before her birthday on July 18, Wilson booking the hotel and paying for dinner.

She asked him how he could afford it, and his reply, she said, had been: “It’s only money. I work on the railway and I have nobody else. You can’t take it with you.”

Mrs McNeil went on to outline how the defendant continued to spend money on her during their relationship.

As a birthday present, he paid for her to have her belly button pierced. Before they took a luxury holiday to the Maldives in September 2007, he gave her an envelope containing £400. He told her to use the cash to buy some clothes for the holiday.

The holiday was a 14-night stay and they travelled either club or first class.

Mrs McNeil said Wilson at one point rang her to say the air tickets had arrived in the name of Mr and Mrs Wilson, and she asked him to have it altered, which he promised he would do.

Mr Cummings invited Mrs McNeil to comment about the choice of first or club class for the holiday travel.

“He said that was the only way to travel.”

She said he’d told her about taking his wife to Richard Branson’s game reserve three or four years before she died, and travelling first class then.

She and Wilson stayed in a hotel in London and he had paid £150 for a taxi fare to the hotel.

Recalling that holiday, staying on a island where the guests were mainly newlyweds, McNeil said: “Robert always said he knew he would marry me on my 50th. He said he knew that he would propose to me. I said: ‘You don’t know that I’d say yes’. “He said: ‘I’ll only ask once, so you’d better say yes’. Sometimes it was flattery, sometimes I felt there was a little bit of control there.

“I hadn’t been successful in two marriages so I would really not want to rush into anything else.”

He talked about how Jane had died of cancer to everybody they met, she said.

After returning to the UK, she said, Wilson insisted on returning with her to Spain so she would not have to carry her luggage and so he could spend more time with her, said Mrs McNeil. “He said I’m not having you carry your own luggage.”

They spent three weeks together in total.

He told her the holiday had cost £15,000 but added that he’d saved up and would have taken the holiday anyway.

Just before the holiday, Mrs McNeil had finished her job in Spain and planned to return to the UK. She said Wilson had said he wanted to spent Christmas with her.

He paid for a course in nail care for her in Northampton when she came back. She travelled first to Cardiff, where she spent time with her first husband, with whom she was on friendly terms.

As she arrived at the airport, Wilson rang to say he’d arranged for a Mercedes car to be delivered there for her, a car he’d leased. As the relationship developed, Wilson and Mrs McNeil began talking about moving to France.

Earlier in the week, the jury heard that police began their murder investigation after Mrs Wilson’s children from a previous marriage, Lee and Sharon Kennedy, found evidence at his home of his relationship with Mrs McNeil.

The prosecution say Mrs Wilson – a rural post-woman – died just when the defendant needed her to, as the two halves of his life were about to collide.

Story Rail boss Fred Story said he had dismissed Wilson from his job as a roster manager after he took time off work for lung cancer and then failed to provide documentary evidence of his illness.

Mrs McNeil was due to resume giving her evidence today.