A man today told of his shock at discovering a former friend was black widow killer Dena Thompson.
Thompson, 43, was jailed for life for killing her husband, Julian Webb. She killed him with a drugs overdose disguised in a curry.
Gary Wilson, of Clacton, was friends with Thompson and her husband nearly ten years ago.
He said: "What she has done is terrible, but I can only say what she was like to me. She was a sweet, lovely lady.
"She used to come down and sit for hours. She's been to my mum's eight or ten times. She was the loveliest lady. She was so sweet, she used to cuddle my mum and cuddle me.
"She was so calm and used to keep saying 'come down for dinner'."
Mr Wilson first met Thompson in about 1994, when she and Mr Webb visited his home to talk about model kits.
He said: "She and Julian had been to my house about ten times. Then one day she phoned me up and said 'Julian's dead'."
Published Thursday December 18, 2003
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