Mystery of judge's death unsolved

Kerry Sparrow, 38, won her long-running fight to have a second inquest held into her lover Andrew Chubb's death in July 2001 after exposing a series of flaws in the original police investigation. But a coroner admitted the fresh inquiry might have "raised more questions" than answers after ruling there was not enough evidence to return suicide or accidental death as verdicts.

Sheriff Payne, however, cleared Mr Chubb's wife, Jennifer, 60, of any involvement in his death - stressing it would have been "almost impossible" for her to kill him, shortly after he told her he wanted a divorce.

Speaking after the five-day inquest ended in Glastonbury, Somerset, Miss Sparrow told reporters: "I will probably never know for sure what happened on the night Andrew died. I sincerely hope that no-one else has to go through what I have been through and I hope that my fight encourages other people to seek the truth.

"Andrew passionately believed in justice and I know that he would feel that I have got justice for him."

Judge Chubb, 58, is thought to have perished in a blaze at his farmhouse near Chard, Somerset, just over an hour after telling his wife he was ending their 34-year marriage.

An inquest into his death in December 2001 recorded a verdict of accidental death based on the theory that a spark from his lawnmower might have caused a huge explosion.

But after Miss Sparrow campaigned to have the case reopened, detectives dramatically arrested Mrs Chubb the following year on suspicion of murder and committing perjury at the first inquest. But she was cleared after the Crown Prosecution Service ruled there was not enough evidence to prosecute.

Mr Payne also stressed there was no evidence of any third party involvement in the case and said the only evidence suggesting he was suicidal came from a conversation he had with Miss Sparrow on the day of his death, in which he said he was thinking of "harming himself".

The coroner said he was satisfied the judge was alive when the fire started, but could not establish if he had been killed as a result of an accident in the shed or the fire itself. He recorded the cause of death as unascertained as a result.