A woman accused of plotting with her lover to kill his wife 43 years ago told a neighbour that he had been upstairs with her because he was trying on a Father Christmas outfit.

Sheila Bernarde said she knocked and walked into Margaret Spooner’s home in November 1980 to see her, wearing no tights, walking down the stairs with former Swindon man Allen Morgan behind her.

She told the jury at Luton Crown Court: “I knocked on the door and walked in. Margaret was coming down the stairs followed by Allen. It must have been late morning.

“Allen was behind her. Margaret did not have any tights on. It was a bit cold. She said: ‘We have been upstairs. Allen has been trying on the Father Christmas outfit for the play school.’”

The couple, who are now married, stand accused of paying an unknown killer to murder Allen’s wife Carol, 36, at her shop Morgans Food Fare in Finch Crescent, Linslade, Leighton Buzzard on 13th August 1981. The shop raider escaped with £435 cash and 1,400 cigarettes.

Swindon Advertiser: Carol MorganCarol Morgan (Image: PA)

Allen Morgan, 73, and Margaret Morgan, 76, of Stanstead Crescent, Woodingdean, Brighton, deny conspiracy to murder the mother-of-two.

Ms Bernarde, who was aged 33 at the time, said she lived two doors away from Margaret Spooner, as she was then known, in Camberton Road, Linslade.

She said she also got to know Carol and Allen Morgan as she bought cigarettes and newspapers from their shop. She said she came from Swindon and recognised that they also had a Swindon accent.

Allen was often at the house, she said, because he was helping to build an extension. In a statement made in August 1981, she said: “For some time I had my own suspicions about an affair between Allen Morgan and Margaret Spooner. This was confirmed in late July 1981 when Margaret told me herself.”

She said Margaret told her: “It started off as a causal thing but it became serious. “

When Margaret’s husband Mike Spooner found out about the affair she said he went to see Allen and threw newspapers at him.

In the days before the killing she said Margaret and her children took her and her children on a boat trip along the Grand Union Canal to London. She said each night Allen would come to the boat.

She said: “Some nights they went off on their own. He did not stay the night."

On the morning after the killing, she said Allen Morgan knocked on her door and said: “She’s dead and I have been robbed - all for £500. She has been murdered. They smashed the side of her head in. I didn’t want it this way.”

The case continues.