Back-from-dead canoeist 'in affair'

Anne Darwin, speaking from the witness box at her trial for a £250,000 insurance fraud, said she considered leaving her husband after finding out he had cheated on her.

She told the jury: "I was quite obviously upset when I found out about the relationship.

"I did consider leaving him, but I just couldn't see a life without him. I didn't know how I would cope on my own so I forgave him."

Mrs Darwin, a former doctor's receptionist, is accused of organising a scam with her 57-year-old husband, who staged his disappearance in a canoeing accident six years ago.

She painted a picture of a domineering husband who loved to get his own way.

She said that when they bought their first house together as a married couple in the 1970s, he wanted extra fittings added to the brand new house.

She said: "I prefer to live within our means rather than stretching ourselves to the limit, but that was the beginning of stretching ourselves. That became the pattern whenever we moved house. We had the maximum mortgage."

Mrs Darwin said she had no sexual relations with anyone before they were married and none with anyone else since.

The court heard she eventually found out he was having an affair.