'I acted alone in covering up wife's death - woman living in my shed knew nothing'

A MAN serving a life sentence for murdering his wife and dumping her body in their cellar told a trial that he acted alone.

Harry Jarvis, 61, said his wife Carol, a mother of four, died in bed after a series of fits, minutes after he brought her a drink.

And he insisted that another woman, who was so "besotted" with him that she lived in his garden shed, did not even know Mrs Jarvis, 47, was dead until police questioned her as a murder suspect.

Rita Heyster, 57, was cleared of murdering Mrs Jarvis "by means unknown" on Friday when a judge at the High Court in Edinburgh ruled that there was not enough evidence.

She remains accused of helping Jarvis hide his wife's body as part of a cover-up - an allegation she denies.

Yesterday, Grimsby-born Jarvis was called as a defence witness by Heyster's legal team.

He told the jury he had been convicted of murdering his sickly wife at their West Lothian home and is serving a minimum of 15 years before he can apply for parole.

Jarvis continued to protest his innocence, but said he had given up an attempt to challenge his conviction in the appeal court, after speaking to his lawyers.

Jarvis also denied that Heyster was his secret lover - even though the jury has seen what appear to be love letters he wrote to her.

"I love you very much and my heart will always be yours," read one. "Dangerous times but we will get through."

Jarvis described events during the early hours of 12 September, 2009. He had been in bed with his wife when she woke and asked for a drink.

He brought her Ribena and she drank most of it then settled down again.

"After less than a minute she started to shake. She was already sweating in bed, but that was not uncommon."

Mr Jarvis said the shakes got worse and he tried to help his wife by administering a sedative, but the effects did not last and she began fitting again. Again a sedative brought only temporary relief and she started shaking again, worse than before. Her limbs were stretched out stiff "like a board", he said.

"I still had my arms round her and she just went relaxed. I saw her lips were blue. I checked her breathing, I checked her heart and she was dead."Solicitor advocate Ray McMenamin asked: "Where was Rita when this was happening?" Jarvis replied: "I have no idea."

Mr Jarvis told how he had lifted his wife's body and taken it to the basement of their home.

The trial heard that the couple - married for 30 years - had spoken of a sort of suicide pact, so that if one of them died they would be together.

He went back upstairs and picked up a bottle of whisky and some of Carol's tablets.

"I went down to the basement, taking the tablets and started drinking the whisky," said Jarvis.

He then heard knocking at the front door and thought it might be a visit from his son, Kevin.

Jarvis "flipped the latch" then dashed to the living room to cover the hatch door entrance to the basement.

But it was Heyster who came into the house. "She told me I looked ill," said Jarvis.

He told how he sent her on a false shopping errand to give him more time to cover his wife's body. He said he concocted a story about Ms Jarvis going into respite care to explain her absence from the house.

Questioned by advocate depute Gary Allan, QC, prosecuting, Mr Jarvis admitted he had given police a different account of his wife's death, but described it as "a work of complete fiction".

The trial continues.