Widow and her lover deny murder

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A County Armagh woman and her lover have gone on trial accused of murdering her husband by putting a plastic bag over his head in June 2004.

Jacqueline Crymble and Roger Ferguson, of Richhill, deny killing Paul Crymble.

He was found suffocated in his car near his Richhill home with a plastic bag taped tightly round his neck, and his feet and hands bound with cable ties.

The prosecution claim fingerprints show the bag came from her kitchen and Mr Ferguson's DNA was found on the ties.

Mr Ferguson's friend Colin Robinson of Riverside Apartments in Gilford is also charged with murdering Mr Crymble.

The prosecution claimed Mr Crymble was killed because he was an unwanted impediment to his wife and her lover starting a new life with the "crock of gold" his death would have brought them.

Drugs claim

The jury at Armagh Crown Court heard a recording of a 999 call Mrs Crymble made on the night her husband went missing.

In it, she wept as she explained how a gang of masked men had beaten her husband and taken him away.

She later told police that the men had been after drugs and money and that local people believed the couple had been involved in selling drugs for loyalist paramilitaries.

The prosecution lawyer said this was simply a façade presented by Mrs Crymble to cover up the fact that it had been she and her lover who had killed her husband.

He said he would prove that the bag came from a roll of bags found in her kitchen and that her fingerprints indicated she had torn it from the roll.

They also say that DNA from Mr Ferguson, from Cabragh Road in Richhill, was found on the cable ties and in the Crymble home.

All three deny the charges. The trial is expected to last up to three months.