A Northern Ireland mother of triplets, finally cleared of murdering her husband, spoke yesterday of how she had been put through years of living hell.
Ms Lesley Gault (37) wept with relief as she was found not guilty by a majority verdict of a bedroom attack on Paul Gault at their home in Lisburn, Co Antrim.
Her ex-lover, Gordon Graham, a fire chief, battered the 33-year-old victim to death with a hockey stick in May 2000, soon after the two-year affair was discovered.
But following three trials a jury decided she had played no part in the murder plot.
Ms Gault appeared stunned as the verdict was read out at Omagh Crown Court. She asked a prison officer for confirmation before collapsing into her family's arms and through tears thanking the seven men and five women who had decided her fate.
Relatives of the dead man immediately walked out without making any comment.
Ms Gault had been found guilty of the murder but went back on trial after appeal judges quashed the conviction in July.
She said nothing as she left the courtroom flanked by her mother and solicitor.
But in a statement released later through her legal representatives she spoke of her torment.
"I have lived through a nightmare that was almost unimaginable," she said. "In recent years I have been bereaved, imprisoned, vilified and have had to endure the separation from my beloved children."
Graham (40), from Ballygowan, Co Down, is serving a 20-year jail sentence for the killing at the family's Audley Avenue home.
He was convicted when the pair were first tried together in November 2002, but when the jury failed to reach a verdict on Ms Gault she was retried and found guilty by a majority decision the following March.
Although jailed for life, she won the right to a third trial when it was found that her jury had been misdirected.
The prosecution had alleged that she had planned the murder with Graham.