Lund, the Telegraph and the murder lake

9:36am Friday 19th October 2007

MURDER suspect Robert Lund gave away vital clues about his possible guilt when he took Lancashire Telegraph journalists to the scene of his wife's death, a court was told.

In 2003, he took picture editor Neil Johnson and reporter Clare Cook straight to the remote French lake where Evelyn Lund's body was found, despite saying he had never been before.

And he demonstrated a three point turn like the one he believed his wife had made and which he said had led to her driving into the water by accident after getting lost.

Despite researching its location, the journalists had previously spent an hour without success looking for the spot where former Darwen and Burnley woman Mrs Lund had been pulled from her submerged Toyota Landcruiser.

Lund, a former Blackburn Council tree protection officer, is accused of killing his wife for her life insurance. He faces a maximum of 20 years in jail if convicted of unpremeditated murder.

She disappeared from their farmhouse in the village of La Veaute in southern France on December 29, 1999, and her body was not discovered for 22 months.

The Telegraph journalists revealed how Lund, on the one hand, spoke lovingly of his wife but on the other talked about money all the time.

And on the fourth day of Lund's trial, the Cour d'Assises de Tarn, in Albi, was told that he blushed when reporter Clare Cook asked him if he had killed Evelyn, 52.

Earlier in the hearing, examining magistrate Maitre Barthe said: "While there was no way he could have known where or how his wife's vehicle had got into the water he acted as a veritable guide' for the English press, taking journalists without any hesitation to the scene of the drama and giving discerning explanations which, at the time, could not have been deduced from the evidence in the proceedings.

Mr Johnson and Miss Cook visited Lund, 55, at the couple's farmhouse in 2003, two years after his wife's body was found.

And he took them to the exact spot where his wife's body was found in her submerged Toyota Landcruiser at the Lac de Bancalie.

Mr Johnson was questioned about the time they had spent trying to locate the road by the lake. he said: "We had seen pictures from a French newspaper but we looked for about an hour and were unable to find the exact spot.

"Mr Lund told us he had never been to the lake previously so I was somewhat surprise to find he took us to the exact position. There were several incidents that took me by surprise.

"Mr Lund walked across to the side of the bank and pointed down to the bank, and said 'that's where you can see the markers left by the gendarmes'."

Lund was then given the opportunity to comment and insisted the area was well known by local people as a fishing spot and the site had been shown extensively in French press coverage.

He said: "Mr Johnson said that as soon as we turned the corner he recognised it and it was the same for me."

Miss Cook said that Lund was very co-operative and that the only time he became slightly agitated was when she asked him if he had killed Evelyn.

"His face went red," she said. "It was a bizarre and unique situation but he was always at ease with us.

The director of the Maison d'Arret jail, where Lund has been held for the past three years, was called to court to say why Andre Loriot had not been called as a witness after he said under oath that Lund had confessed to him while they were cell mates. He said Loriot was a fantasist who fabricated stories and was not to be believed.

(proceeding)

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