THE last friend to see Evelyn Lund alive told a murder trial how the 'victim' had been destroyed by her husband, literally and figuratively.

Marianne Ramsey told the French court that Robert Lund used to belittle his wife, Evelyn, 52, in public, and said she thought he had broken her self-confidence.

"I think it's absolutely tragic that a lovely woman was destroyed by her husband, literally and figuratively," she said.

And on the mystery of how Evelyn ended up dead in a lake after visiting her home in December 1999, she said: "I think she definitely went home that night, changed, and there was another row, and somewhere along the line she was killed and chucked in the lake."

Lund today told the court that his wife was a violent alcoholic who often attacked him.

He said his relationship with Evelyn was "marred by her violence" from the outset.

Lund, originally from Darwen, is on trial for murdering his Rossendale-born wife.

It is claimed that he pushed her car into a lake with her body inside to make it look like an accident.

It was discovered 22 months later.

At the beginning of his defence at the murder trial the 55-year-old told the Cour d'Assises de Tarn in Albi, south west France, that his wife regularly attacked him when she had been drinking.

Lund, speaking in French, told the jury: "When my wife drank, she became very angry, and she hit me all the time - she hit me very, very hard, and she would throw objects at me.

"The worst was when she threw a 25cm (10in) knife at me. I put my hands up to protect myself and it cut my finger."

He said that his wife once threw a microwave oven at him, missing him and breaking a window.

Lund said he once hit her back, but not hard, and under provocation.

On the third day of the trial, Lund told the court that his wife drank heavily because she was depressed about the death of her first husband, Arthur, from lung cancer in 1991.

He said: "We arrived in France for a new life, but my wife missed her daughters and missed being around English speakers.

"She fell further and further into depression, and she had no confidence in doctors, because it was doctors who gave her first husband 12 months to live, and six weeks later he died.

"So she had no confidence that medicine could cure her problems. She was very afraid."

Lund moved from his home in Anyon Street, Darwen, to live with her before they married and moved to southern France to start a new life together