Two journalists have given evidence in a French court in a re-trial which led to a man accused of killing his wife being jailed for 12 years.

Lancashire Telegraph picture editor Neil Johnson and former reporter Clare Cook were giving evidence at the trial of Robert Lund, who on Friday was convicted for the third time of killing his wife Evelyn Lund whose decomposed body was found two years after she disappeared in 1999.

In 2003 Lund spoke to Neil and Clare, now a senior journalism lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, and told them he had never been to the lake where his wife Evelyn, formerly from Rawtenstall in Lancs, was found dead.

However after he agreed to be photographed at the scene, he led the reporters to the exact spot where her body had been discovered.

Lund was found guilty on Friday for the third time of a crime akin to manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years after twice appealing his conviction.  It was the third time the two journalists had given evidence.

In a front page splash the Telegraph reported how during the trial Clare told the court she and Neil had spent an hour searching for the exact location of Evelyn’s death without success. They then returned with Lund, who led them straight to the spot.

The front page of the Lancashire Telegraph on Friday

Through an interpreter at the re-trial in Montauban, in the South West of France, Neil told how after spending most of the day interviewing Lund at his home, he agreed to take them to the lake with a view to having his photograph taken.

Despite having already told them he had not been to the lake he led them directly to the spot where his wife had been found dead which Neil recognised from pictures in the paper.

Lund was found guilty of killing his wife after she mysteriously disappeared from the couple’s isolated French retirement home.

Two years later the 52-year-old’s badly decomposed body was found slumped on the back seat of her car in Lake Bancalie, about 15 miles from her home.

A juror asked Neil if Lund showed any emotion at the lake.

He replied: “No. The only emotion was under direct questioning from Clare Cook when he went red after she asked, ‘Did you kill your wife?’

Clare told the court that while at the lake, she began probing Lund about what had happened to his wife, the court heard.

She said: “At this point “he blushed, he became more and more anxious.”

Neil told the French court: “The fact that the whole journey was made down to quite a remote part of the lake without any hesitation (by Lund) surprised me.

“I found it very hard to believe that someone could actually get to that point on the lake without having been there previously.”

Lund insisted to the journalists that although he had not been to the spot before, he knew where it was as he had seen it on the news.

Lund has already been convicted twice in connection with his wife’s death. He initially appealed on a legal point and was again found guilty of a crime akin to manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

In his version of events, his wife had been drinking on the night she disappeared and must have lost her way while driving home from visiting friends.

On realising her mistake, he claimed she tried to turn around, lost control of the car and ploughed into the water.

Had he not appealed he would have been released in 2014.