A CHEATING husband broke down as he told a jury he poured white spirit on his wife’s jumper before the flames tore her hair and face.

Darren Byrne, of Morgan Crescent, Theydon Bois, said he was overwhelmed with panic when he tried to cover up he had hit his wife, Maria, during a row which apparently killed her.

The 40-year-old said he wanted to make it look as if his wife had a cooking accident and that she was already dead when he set fire to her.

It is alleged Maria caught him texting Deborah Houlihan, a married osteopath who he had been seeing the previous June.

The night before she died, the couple, who have two sons, had gone out for dinner and agreed to start a new life together in Suffolk.

But when she changed her mind the following day, they had an argument and he hit her and she fell and was knocked unconscious.

She was trying to catch her breath in short gasps – but believing it was a “fake panic attack” to get attention he left the house.

When he returned an hour later she was flying flat on the floor and when he could not find a pulse, he began CPR.

He left the house again but said he did not know why he did not phone for help.

He said: "I thought I had killed her. I just panicked. I thought of the boys. "

Speaking about how he set fire to her, he told the jury at Chelmsford Crown Court: “It started slowly. There was a small flame on her jumper. I lifted up the gas top and put the matches away and as I did so the fire just went over her.

"She had been partially alight for some time on her jumper, a small fire. Then the fire caught hold. I couldn't believe the flames went into her hair, on to her face. I thought I was going to black out."

He said he had gone for a saucepan of water to put the fire out but by then the flames had gone.

"I thought I was going to be sick and I ran out of the house," he told the court.

Asked what possessed him to burn his wife, Byrne said: "I've no idea at all. I thought it was a good idea to cover something up. It just spiralled out of control. I was overwhelmed with panic.

"It's the most horrendous thing."

Byrne, of Morgan Crescent, Theydon Bois, pleads not guilty to murdering Maria Byrne on 13 February this year.

He also denies an offence of arson, being reckless as to whether life was endangered relating to neighbours in the adjoining semi-detached house.

Forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Carey, giving evidence for the prosecution, said Mrs Byrne was alive for 30 minutes after she suffered a brain injury, which would not have been fatal.

He said her death would have been rapid from shock and heart failure due to the intensity of the blaze.

Dr David Rouse, who carried out a second post-mortem on behalf of the defence, told the court Mrs Byrne was dead when the white spirit was lit.

Black-haired Byrne, dressed in a dark suit and tie and white shirt, occasionally wiped his eyes and his voice trembled at times during his evidence.

Byrne and Maria met in 2006 when they worked at the same investment bank, married in 2008 and moved to Morgan Crescent, Theydon Bois.

He claimed his wife started to become jealous in 2014 because he was working long hours and accused him of sleeping with different women.

Turning to his affair with Mrs Houlihan he said that in July 2015, a month after he began the affair his wife found an email and "went crazy".

The affair resumed a month later but it was drifting to an end anyway by early 2016 and neither he nor Mrs Houlihan intended to break up their marriages over it, he said.

The trial continues.