THE husband of murdered Saints steward Paula Poolton told a court how the secret lover accused of killing her avoided shaking his hand the day after her disappearance.

Ricky Poolton told Winchester Crown Court how it had become a custom before every Saints match at St Mary’s Stadium for the stewards to exchange handshakes and wish each other good luck.

But Roger Kearney slipped out of the room before Ricky could shake his hand ahead of the match between Southampton and Watford, jurors heard.

Mr Poolton, 54, said: “He [Kearney] was very evasive. He kind of skirted out of the stewards ‘room.”

Despite 40-year-old Paula not returning home the previous night, October 17, 2008, Mr Poolton had gone to the stadium as normal the next day because he assumed she had gone out on a “bender” and would turn up later.

The prosecution claims Kearney murdered Paula, his lover of three months, the night before the match.

Kearney, 57, of Painswick Close, Sarisbury Green, denies killing Paula, who was found stabbed to death in the boot of her car, near Swanwick railway station, 11 days after she went missing.

The court also heard how Mr Poolton made desperate attempts to contact his wife in the days after she went missing.

Mr Poolton, a builder, said he “constantly” called her mobile and spoke of his “desperation and anger” when she never returned home and had no idea about her affair with Kearney.

Describing how he felt, Mr Poolton said: “Pretty desperate, angry. Well, angry, thinking she had gone off without a word, not contacting anyone, even her family.”

The court was told how Mr Poolton and Paula, who married in 2005 and lived in Course Park Crescent, Titchfield, had a “volatile” relationship which had “some great times, excellent times, some not so very good”.

Under cross-examination by Nigel Pascoe QC about their volatile relationship, Mr Poolton said: “It could be volatile yes, lots of shouting, just mainly arguing, arguments over her drinking.”

But Mr Poolton said that in the three weeks leading up to Paula’s disappearance it was “really, really good and getting better”.

On the night she disappeared he said that they had cuddled and had a few tears over the death of their cat before she went out.

The court also heard how Mr Poolton was left “totally aghast” when police turned up on his doorstep on the night Paula’s body was found and arrested him on suspicion of murder.

He was later released without charge.

When asked by the prosecution if he murdered his wife, he said: “No, I did not kill Paula.”

Proceeding