A debt-ridden Cumbrian farmer who drove over his wife in his tractor to claim her life insurance and start a new life with his secret mistress was jailed for life yesterday.

Robert Wilson, 40, stood with his head bowed in the dock at Carlisle Crown Court as the jury found him guilty. at the end of a three-week trial, of murdering his wife Jane, 53.

Mr Justice David Clarke told Wilson that he would have to serve a minimum of 22 years before he could be considered for release. There was a shout of “lights out, Bob” and gasps of delight from the public gallery.

The prosecution had suggested that Wilson was a devious man living a double life and had got rid of an unwanted wife at a time when his two worlds threatened to collide.

Wilson’s wife, a part-time postmistress, was found dead in a barn at their farm in the village of Kirkandrews-on-Eden, near Carlisle, in December last year, only days before his lover was expected to visit him.

Initially, the farmer’s claim that his wife must have been nudged under the wheels of the tractor by a cow as they were rounding up the herd was accepted. However, concerns were raised by Mrs Wilson’s grown-up children when they discovered evidence of the illicit affair.

Sharon Kennedy, 32, and her brother Lee, 30, visited the farmhouse three weeks after their mother’s death. They found sentimental cards sent by Wilson’s lover, Kathy McNeil, on the bedside table, including one urging him to “Please hurry back, all my love, Kathy”.

Brian Cummings, QC, for the prosecution, suggested that he had either killed his wife by driving over her or in some other way and then attempted to cover up the murder by staging a fake accident. He could free himself of an unwanted wife and claim her £400,000 life insurance to pay off his debts.

When police arrived to arrest him four months after the murder they found him in bed with Michelle Dodd, an occasional worker at the farm who was said to look like a younger version of his late wife.

It was said during the trial that Wilson had met Mrs McNeil, a 48-year old divorcée, in a bar in the Spanish resort of Puerto Banus in October 2006. He told her a string of lies to win her affections and said that his wife had died of cancer and that he was revisiting some old haunts that had meant a lot to them.

He wooed her enthusiastically, travelling at least eight times to Spain to visit the woman he called his “sex kitten”. Wilson told her that he would marry her when she turned 50, lavishing her with gifts, hiring a Mercedes car for her and taking her on a £14,000 holiday to the Maldives.

Mrs McNeil told the jury that he made her feel safe but that now she simply felt like a fool. When she moved back to Britain to start a new life with Wilson he began stalling about when she could visit the farm. He put her off by inventing a fatal traffic accident involving relatives.

Mrs Wilson was murdered, the prosecution said, just as the farmer’s “two worlds were about to collide”. When Mrs McNeil eventually arrived at the farm two weeks after Mrs Wilson’s death, he “confessed” that she had not died of lung cancer but had thrown herself under his tractor.

After his arrest Wilson claimed that he had an open marriage and that his wife, whom he met when she was managing a nightclub, had condoned his liaison with Mrs McNeil. The jury heard evidence from friends, however, who said Mrs Wilson “loved him to bits”. One said “Jane worshipped the ground Robert walked on”.

It also came to light that Wilson, who was £300,000 in debt, had made provision in his will for his two lovers. He had left a racehorse to Ms Dodd and a large slice of the farm to Mrs McNeil.

As the verdict was given, Sharon Kennedy began sobbing uncontrollably. Mr Justice Clarke said: “Wilson was an accomplished and habitual liar who has deceived and sometimes manipulated other people by his lying.

“The cold-blooded nature of this killing for despicable and selfish reasons, primarily for him to pursue a relationship with another woman, but also, I have no doubt about it in my mind, the future financial security he would enjoy from the insurance money.”

Mrs Wilson’s family said in a statement: “We have got justice for Jane and hopefully it will help restore our faith and trust in people again. When you are surrounded by evil and immorality, it is easy to become consumed in bitterness and hate.”

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