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A judge's wife calmly took in her washing and closed windows as her husband burnt to death inside a shed, an inquest heard.

Jenny Chubb is said to have tended to her laundry as others desperately searched for a way to save her husband, who died soon after asking her for a divorce.

Her bizarre behaviour was described after the second inquest into the death of Judge Andrew Chubb began yesterday.

The 58-year-old father of three died in a fireball less than 90 minutes after telling his wife he wanted a divorce and walking out to mow the lawn.

DailyMail

Mistress storms out of judge's inquest

The mistress of a judge who was killed in a fireball in his garden shed dramatically walked out of an inquest while giving evidence today.

Kerry Sparrow, 38, stormed out of the courtroom, saying: 'I can't do this.'

Judge Andrew Chubb, 58, had a two-year affair with Miss Sparrow, a legal secretary, before he was killed after the explosion at his home in Somerset in July 2001.

He died less than an hour after telling his wife Jennifer, 68, that he wanted a divorce.


Miss Sparrow claimed today that she was heavily tranquillised when she gave her original statement to police.

She said she could not read out the statement because it was untrue.

'I did sign it,' she told the coroner. 'But I didn't read it because I was so heavily tranquillised.'

Miss Sparrow also claimed she had been 'bullied' by officers into giving the statement just a week after his death.

The relationship between Miss Sparrow and the judge began after he moved to Portsmouth in 1999 when he was appointed a crown court judge.

'It was after only a couple of days that I very quickly fell in love with him and that feeling was mutual and he fell in love with me,' said Miss Sparrow.

She said he had cried when telling her his marriage was dead and that his wife had two affairs.

'He said he didn't have a happy marriage. He said for the past 20 years they had not had a sexual relationship at all.

'I never put any pressure on Andrew to get a divorce. He was so depressed at being in a loveless marriage.'

She denied calling him a 'b****rd', which was in the statement she was reading.

Earlier, the inquest heard that the post-mortem examination carried out after Mr Chubb's death was 'unreliable'.

It had claimed the cause of death was burning.

Dr Hugh White, a forensic pathologist for the Home Office, said the results were 'insufficient', 'confusing' and 'did not make sense'.

Last year Miss Sparrow successfully challenged an inquest held in December 2001 which ruled that the death was accidental.

The coroner had previously heard that Mrs Chubb took clothes off a washing line while her husband burned yards away.

She was arrested but later released without charge. The inquest continues.

Metro

Judge death 'remains a mystery'

Andrew Chubb died in an explosion in his garden shed
A judge who died in an explosion in his garden shed neither committed suicide nor was killed, a coroner has ruled.

A second inquest into the death of Andrew Chubb, 58, found the cause of death was "unascertained".

The judge had asked his wife of 34 years, Jennifer, for a divorce hours before his death in 2001, the five-day inquest in Glastonbury has heard.

His wife told police that his mistress, Kerry Sparrow, was blackmailing the judge - a claim Ms Sparrow denied.

The coroner said at Glastonbury Town Hall that Judge Chubb's death was still a mystery and the precise cause, reasons and explanation remain officially unascertained.

He discounted any suggestion that he was killed by his wife or any other third party.

He also said there was no firm evidence that it was suicide.
BBC

Coroner clears wife - but judge's fireball death remains a mystery Mail

So who DID kill my lover? The mistress of the judge killed in a fireball tragedy speaks out

After years of conflicting claims, accusation and counter-accusation, dark talk of blackmail and revelations of professional incompetence, 38-year-old Kerry Sparrow was granted a resolution of sorts: the death of her lover Judge Andrew Chubb can no longer be filed under the heading "accidental".

Andrew, a highly respected Crown Court judge, died in a fireball in the garden shed of his £1 million home in July 2001, just two hours after asking his wife of 33 years, Jennifer, for a divorce. It was, a coroner recorded at the original inquest five months later, an accident.

Kerry has never believed it and has fought a five-year battle to reopen the inquest.

DailyMail