Darwen man convicted of murder in France told he will not be allowed appeal
7:26am Saturday 1st September 2012 in News
A DARWEN man convicted three times of killing his wife, whose decomposed body was found in a French lake almost two years after she disappeared, has been told he will never be allowed to appeal his sentence again.
The remains of Evelyn Lund, from Rawtenstall, were discovered in her car in Lake Bancalie some 22 months after she went missing from the French farmhouse she shared with her second husband Robert Lund in 1999.
Lund who appealed his sentence for a third time in 2011 on a legal point, was again found guilty of a crime akin to manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The French Court of Appeal has now ruled Lund will not be allowed to appeal again.
Had he been granted another appeal and been acquitted, Lund would of received a pay-out from his late wife's life insurance policy as well as half the value of the marital home in the remote village of Rayssac, south-west France.
During Lund’s second retrial, held at a court in the southern French town of Montauban, Jurors were told of his "strange" and "peculiar" behaviour after his wife mysteriously disappeared on December 29, 1999.
Preoccupied with money and his wife's will, he seemed far less concerned about the fact that she was missing, distraught family members said.
More than one broke down in tears before the jury as they described how the "tragedy" had affected them.
If Lund now wanted to take the matter further he would have to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Speaking to a French newspaper, Robert Lund’s solicitor said: “Of course we object to the Court of Appeal’s decision.
“Robert Lund should be allowed to apply for conditional freedom. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison but it has already been almost eight years since he was incarcerated.
“His behaviour in prison has been exemplary and he has never stopped working.”
Even if Lund went to the European Court of Human Rights and they recognised he had not been fairly judged there would be no change to his sentence as it can’t overule the French justice system.
