Will second inquest solve mystery of the judge killed by fireball?

Kerry Sparrow was last year granted a fresh inquest into Judge Andrew Chubb's death in his blazing garden shed.

It emerged that the hearing could be presented with dramatic new evidence from a number of witnesses.

It will then decide whether the father of three committed suicide or was unlawfully killed, or reach an open verdict. Judge Chubb's remains were found in the garden shed at his 19th century farmhouse near Chard, Somerset, on July 27, 2001.

He had asked his wife Jennifer to free him from their 34-year marriage so he could start a new life with his blonde lover.

The 58-year-old circuit judge, a prosecutor at the trial of mass killer Rosemary West, had been having an affair with legal officer Miss Sparrow for two years. He told her he had been trapped in a loveless marriage for 20 years.

Mrs Chubb, a community nurse, told the first inquest in December 2001 that after asking her for a divorce her husband went to mow the lawn. Soon after that she saw the shed explode.

Questions arose over his death after it was discovered that evidence had been destroyed or overlooked. Police allowed Mrs Chubb to bulldoze the remains of the shed the day after the fire. And it was not established if Mr Chubb was dead when the fire started as his remains had been cremated.

The inquest nevertheless decided the judge died accidentally when his lawnmower started a fire.

Mrs Chubb, 60, was interviewed under caution on suspicion of murder and perjury in May 2002 but was released without charge. She inherited her husband's £1 million estate and moved to Australia.

She is said to believe that a new inquest will vindicate her, although it is unclear whether she will attend next week's hearing at Glastonbury.

Miss Sparrow, 38, has spent years collecting evidence which she says counters the original verdict.

During the first inquest the coroner agreed with experts who said a spark from a lawnmower could have ignited petrol fumes in the shed.

But a report expected to be heard at the new hearing, from one of the world's leading specialists in the investigation of fires, said the assumption that a spark could have triggered the blaze was purely 'speculative'.

Dr Chris Foster said: "If I had observed the same evidence and recorded the same findings as the scene examiners then with that information I would not have speculated."

Miss Sparrow told the Observer: "Everybody deserves justice and I believe that the outcome of this inquest will bring closure."