Canoeist wife: I was forced to lie

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Mrs Darwin was asked by prosecutor Andrew Robertson QC how she could deceive her sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29. He asked her: "There can only be one explanation for it, is it that you wanted the money?"

Breaking down in tears, Mrs Darwin replied: "I didn't want the money. Money was not important to me."

Wearing a cream woven jacket, pink blouse, black trousers and black shoes, Mrs Darwin continued to blame her husband and said he had forced her to take part in the £250,000 fraud.

Mr Robertson asked Mrs Darwin: "When you saw what you were saying to your own sons why didn't you, their mother, take them to one side and say, 'I cannot bear seeing you like this, the truth is that he is not dead. We are in dire financial circumstances and he's had this mad idea to try to claim some money from the insurance companies?' Why didn't you bring their pain to an end?"

Mrs Darwin replied: "Because I felt trapped."

Mrs Darwin denied that she had deceived her sons because she wanted the insurance money. Mr Robertson then asked her: "The truth is Mrs Darwin that you were well aware of the financial indebtedness?"

She replied: "Not to that extent."

Mr Robertson asked Mrs Darwin about why she repeatedly changed her story while being interviewed by the police. He asked her: "You will lie until it is proven you are lying, Mrs Darwin?" She replied: "I don't know."

He asked her again: "Once you start lying you will continue with that lie until it is proven you were lying?" Mrs Darwin replied: "It is not possible to say." The trial continues.