DIANA Lee’s brother spoke of the hard time his sister had suffered during her life and how she lived in fear of a former partner.

Colin Sherwin, who was Diana’s younger brother, spoke behind a curtain when giving evidence at Chester Crown Court on Monday, June 10.

Mr Sherwin, a dairy farmer from Tabley, said his sister had married in her late 20s and had kept her married name after it came to an end in the late 90s. She had lived in her Parklands home for 14 years.

He added Diana loved meeting new people.

“She was a good listener and had a lot of friends and she never used to brag about anything, that was Diana through and through,” he said.

“She kept a lot to herself and she had been through such a hard time with the break-up of her first marriage – which had never happened in our family before – and a bad second partner.

“She was a very busy person working weekends just to keep her mind occupied because she had had such a bad time.”

Mr Sherwin spoke about how Diana’s former partner Neville Barratt had made her a ‘very frightened person’ after he physically assaulted her in 2009. Mr Barratt served an 18-month prison term as a result.

He added that Diana only moved back to Parklands after spending time away living with her mother when he asked his friend Andrew Leese if he wanted to move in as a lodger in November 2011.

“Diana was a very secure person, locking gates, locking doors,” he added.

“She had keys for everything and the gates were always locked.”

Mr Sherwin went on to tell the jury about how he arrived at Parklands on the morning of August 9. He had been to a slaughterhouse in Crewe to drop one of his cows off and on the way back he intended to pop in with his mother to see Diana and repair a sit-on lawn mower.

He tried to call his sister but on both occasions the call went through to her voicemail which he found strange as it was her business line.

When he arrived in Cranage he found smoke bellowing from the garage and crawled under the conifers to investigate further. He added it was strange that her silver Vauxhall Corsa was not parked in front of the house.

After kicking down a side door he found the mower on its side in the garage, which in his mind meant it was intentional as it was too heavy for Diana to move.

He used water from two water butts to put out the fire and told the jury he believed he was ‘winning’ when he noticed another pocket of fire break out.

Mr Sherwin then said he noticed the kitchen window was open and there was smoke inside the house and coming out of an upstairs window as well. At this point a neighbour was asked to call for the fire brigade.

David Ryan, of Byrom Street, Hale denies murder.

The trial continues.