A woman who had a two-year affair with a married judge denied yesterday that she had been blackmailing him.

An inquest heard claims that Kerry Sparrow received payments of up to £200 from Andrew Chubb after she threatened to tell the story of their affair to the press.

Mr Chubb, 58, died in July 2001 when the shed at his farmhouse in Somerset exploded 90 minutes after he told his wife, Jennifer, that he wanted a divorce. A coroner has been asked to decide whether his death was an accident, suicide or unlawful killing. This is the second inquest and was ordered after fresh evidence cast doubt on the original verdict of accidental death.

Miss Sparrow broke down in tears when she was asked why she changed her story about Mr Chubb’s mood. In statements given to the police soon after his death, she said that Mr Chubb had been depressed and talked of “harming himself” by throwing himself off the roof of the Crown Court building in Portsmouth, where he sat as a judge.

Yesterday, at Glastonbury Town Hall, she angrily denied having said that Mr Chubb had intended to harm himself. She said that the words had been inserted by police officers who “bullied” her into signing the statement without having read it. She said that Mr Chubb had been “blissfully” happy with their relationship but had been frightened of how his wife would react when he asked for a divorce.

Jason Beer, representing Avon and Somerset Police, against whom Miss Sparrow has made a series of complaints, asked whether she had changed her story to make suicide appear less likely. She replied: “Andrew would never have killed himself. I just know that.” Her solicitor, Sarah Bourke, asked whether she had been blackmailing Mr Chubb, as his wife had claimed. She replied: “No, I absolutely loved him.”

Allegations by Miss Sparrow had led to Mrs Chubb being questioned on suspicion of his murder. Transcripts of Mrs Chubb’s interviews with detectives in May 2002 were read at the inquest. She described how her husband confessed to the affair after she answered the phone at 1.15am and a young woman hung up after asking to speak to him.

Mrs Chubb told officers that he had confessed the next morning. She said: “He said they had been having a sexual affair for 2½ years and he had been trying to end it. His exact words were, ‘She’s sort of blackmailing me and threatening to go to the press. I’ve been giving her money’.”

Mr Chubb also revealed that his lover had had an abortion. Mrs Chubb said that she found this “more astonishing than if she’d had a baby”.

Detectives questioned why Mrs Chubb had told friends that her husband had killed himself but made no mention of that to the police. They suggested that she had kept quiet because a suicide verdict could have affected claims on her husband’s life insurance. Mrs Chubb, who has since moved to Australia and refused to attend the new hearing, was asked by police directly whether she had killed her husband and started the fire to destroy the evidence. She replied “No”. She was later released without charge.

The coroner, Sheriff Payne, said that he was considering a narrative verdict. He said that he would “dismiss fairly rapidly” a verdict of unlawful killing. The verdict is expected this morning.

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