Briton jailed for 12 years in France for killing wife and dumping her in lake

Robert Lund, originally from Darwen in Lancashire, was cleared of murder but convicted of involuntary homicide.

The decomposed body of his second wife Evelyn, 52, was found in a lake two years after she went missing.

Jurors rejected the 55-year-old's claim that she had driven into the lake by accident following a storm.

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Lund, a former tree surgeon, has always claimed that he played no part in the death of his wife, who had been left a £1million legacy by her first husband.

But Herve Renier, the lawyer for Mrs Lund's three daughters, told the court that it was "medically and technically impossible" for her death to have been an accident.

Her body was only discovered slumped on the back seat of her Toyota Landcruiser when a severe drought caused the water level at Lake Bancalie, 15 miles from their home, to fall by 30ft.

The couple had moved to the remote village of Rayssac, south west France, in 1997 but Mrs Lund missed her children from her first marriage and being among English speakers.

During the five-day trial, the court heard that she had suffered a sustained campaign of mental and physical abuse from her husband that culminated in her death in December 1999.

An important part of the case against Lund related to his wife's spectacles, which were found at their farmhouse after her disappearance.

On the day she went missing, Mrs Lund visited Marianne Ramsey, an Englishwoman who lived a few miles away.

Mrs Ramsey told police that Mrs Lund had been wearing her glasses when she came to her house and the prosecution claim this proves she went home after visiting the Ramseys.

The prosecution claimed Lund repeatedly lied to police to try to hide his crime. He in turn claimed his wife was a violent alcoholic who once attacked him with a 10in kitchen knife and threw a microwave oven at him.

"When my wife drank, she became very angry, and she hit me all the time - she hit me very, very hard, and she would throw objects at me," he said.

Lund admitted he once hit her back, but not hard and under provocation.

He told the court that his wife drank heavily because she was depressed about the death of her first husband Arthur from lung cancer in 1991.

The drinking and violence became worse after the Lunds moved to France, he said.

Addressing the jury in French, Lund said: "We arrived in France for a new life, but my wife fell into depression."

He said she blamed him for what she felt was their miserable, isolated life.