AN EAST Lancashire man was tonight found guilty of killing his wife and dumping her body in a French lake for a second time.

Robert Lund, of Darwen, was found convicted by a new jury during a re-trial in Toulouse, south-west France, over the death of his second wife Evelyn, 52.

Lund shook his head as the verdict was read out by the presiding judge. Some members of Mrs Lund's family wept.

Speaking after the verdict, Mrs Lund's brother Christopher Wilkinson said: "We have waited almost 10 long years for justice and an end to those tragic events.

“The appeal has obviously meant that the deep wounds caused by these tragic events have been reopened and we had to recall all the awful events of two years ago when we had to bury my sister, my mother and my father.

"We now hope to put these awful events behind us and finally let the wounds heal.

"We will always remember Evelyn as the caring, loving daughter, sister, mother and aunty that we knew, not the sad, lonely woman that Robert turned her into."

Lund, a former tree surgeon, was originally convicted of killing her by a court in Albi, in the Tarn area of France in 2007 and jailed for 12 years.

Tonight's verdict is not a new prison term and simply re-affirms the original sentence.

The jury of seven men and five women, along with with three judges, took four hours to reject Lund's claim that his wife had driven into the lake by accident following a storm.

Earlier, after two hours of deliberation, the jury was called back into court after the presiding judge realised the defendant had not been given his final opportunity to address the court.

Lund addressed the jury, saying only: "Mr President, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I am innocent and I did not kill my wife. Thank you."

The jury then resumed deliberations.

However, because of the oversight, Lund's defence team have been given five days to appeal to the French Cour de Cassation, which is the highest court in the French judiciary.

During the five-day retrial, the court heard Mrs Lund, whose family are from Rossendale, went missing from their farmhouse in the remote village of Rayssac on the night of December 29, 1999.

Her badly decomposed body was found nearly two years later, slumped on the back seat of her car in a lake, about 15 miles from her home.

The vehicle was spotted by a passing horse rider when a severe drought caused the level of Lake Bancalie to fall by 30ft.

While police were unable to determine the precise events of the night of December 29, prosecutors believe Mrs Lund stormed out of the house following an argument with her husband.

Mr Lund claims his wife never came home.

But prosecutors say she did return to the farmhouse, where there ensued a violent row with her husband.

This time, they say, the argument went further than ever before and in a bid to cover his tracks, Lund drove his wife's body to the lake before pushing the car into the water.

Lund claimed his wife must have lost her way while driving home from visiting some mutual friends.

On realising her mistake, he claimed she tried to turn around, lost control of the car and ploughed into the water.

But during the trial, jurors were told Lund had subjected his wife to a sustained campaign of mental and physical abuse which culminated in her death in December 1999.

Police questioned Lund at the time but he was not charged with killing his wife until November 2004.

Officers said inconstancies in his account of events had aroused suspicions and these intensified in 2003 when he took two Lancashire Telegraph journalists to the exact - and very remote - spot on Lake Bancalie where Mrs Lund's 4x4 was found, despite claiming he had never been there.

The discovery of Mrs Lund's glasses at her home also played a crucial role in the inquiry, a sign, prosecutors said, that Mrs Lund had returned on the night she disappeared, contrary to her husband's claims.

According to the French legal system, Evelyn Lund's family members will now be awarded damages, with each of Mrs Lund's daughters receiving about £25,000, Maitre Hervé Renier, the family's lawyer, said.

Mrs Lund's two brothers, her late parents and grandchildren will also receive between £6,000 and £13,000 each.