'Abduction' claim of woman accused of husband's murder

A woman accused of helping her lover smother her husband to death told police he had been abducted in a row over drugs, a court heard today.

Jacqueline Crymble, 36, blamed enemies of former loyalist paramilitary leader Johnny Adair after her partner Paul was bundled away and suffocated with a bag over his head.

Police arrived in June 2004 at the isolated County Armagh house to find her on her knees with her hands tied behind her back and a table lamp, broken ornament and telephone on the ground.

“She appeared extremely distressed, showing all the signs of being in shock. She was trembling and shaking quite violently, she was crying, like a constant sobbing,” Sgt Kenneth Millen told Armagh Crown Court.

“She said ’they have taken Paul and they wanted drugs or money’.”

Crymble who now lives at Edenkennedy Way, Richhill, Co Armagh, is accused of murder along with two alleged accomplices, her lover Roger Ferguson, 31, of Cabragh Road, Tandragee and Colin Robinson, 21, of Riverside Apartments.

All three deny the charge.

The ambush happened at the spacious detached dwelling on the Ballybreagh Road, Richhill, in the early hours of the morning on June 20th.

The victim’s body was discovered two miles away in his own car which had been parked on a laneway.

In October 2004 Crymble and Ferguson were charged with the murder.

The court heard how the couple had just returned from a night out at a pub in Richhill when the alarm was raised.

Police who took the call described hearing Crymble in a distressed state, claiming to have been confronted by two or four masked men armed with a gun and a baton.

The pair’s two children were staying with their aunt in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, where the family was originally from.

Sgt Millen said the woman was hyper-ventilating and had to be helped to a police car.

He added: “I formed the opinion there was something I had not been told,” he added.

“At that stage I was treating it as confusion, my opinion at that stage was we have not got the full story.”

He added that Crymble changed her version to increase the number of assailants from two to four and told police that her husband had been driven away in his own car despite being left kneeling in the hallway.