THE wife of a man accused of killing a Cranage cattery owner decided to give evidence for the defence team after believing the police were trying to make her come across as holding a grudge after revealing his affair.

A statement given to police by Karen Ryan, 50, was read out by prosecutor Brian Cummings QC when she gave evidence on Friday, July 12.

In it she said she was sending work emails on her iPhone at 3am on August 9 but said her husband David was not in bed at the time as he did not like her checking her emails while she was not at work.

“I think I was using my phone for 20 minutes and I was able to use it for that length of time as David was not with me and I don’t recall getting out of bed at this time,” she said.

“I was sending emails to work colleagues and to my knowledge I did not receive any replies and when I went to sleep 20 minutes later I was on my own and David was not in my bed.”

She added the first time she recalled David being in the house on August 9 was when he was watching the final of the Olympic Dressage and that was after midday.

But during cross examination by Gordon Cole QC, she told the jury that with her being off work and having a lie-in, she would have woken at 8am on August 9, meaning David would have been downstairs looking after the dogs.

The couple had a puppy that needed looking after during the night and would take turns in making sure it was okay.

Karen added that police had a habit of putting ‘always’ on her statements once they had been typed up when she meant ‘sometimes’ or ‘some of the time’.

“If he didn’t come back to bed he would fall asleep on the sofa,” she said.

She also told the court that up until April this year she had expected the prosecution to call her to give evidence but when they did not get in touch she was contacted by her husband’s defence team.

“It would be easy for me to hold a grudge after finding about the affair,” she said.

“But this is a far more serious matter than his affairs and I didn’t want to come across that I was holding a grudge and I thought the police were trying to tell me that I was holding a grudge.”

Ryan denies murdering Diana Lee.

The trial continues.