The former husband of the lover of a murdered man yesterday denied any involvement in the death.

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said he suspected his now ex-wife had been unfaithful after he saw a suspicious text message on her phone. But he added he only found out his wife had a sexual relationship with Marcus Gibbings a day after Mr Gibbings was found dead.

The man said: “I had been suspicious that she had been messing with someone, but I never knew that it was this particular person, until the police told me.”

He told the Supreme Court he first heard about Mr Gibbings about two weeks before his death, having seen a text message appear on his wife’s phone that read: “I miss you.”

The witness said: “My mind started wondering. I got a pit down in my stomach.”

He added he called a woman friend and she called the number back. The call went to voicemail, which included Mr Gibbings’s first name. The witness said he later spoke to his wife about the message. He said: “My wife informed me that the guy Marcus was planning a trip to Carnival in Trinidad for my wife and her girlfriends.”

The witness added he still had suspicions, but dismissed them. The man said the next time he heard about Mr Gibbings was when his wife told him he had died.

The body of Mr Gibbings, 32, was found inside an apartment on Derwent Lane, in Devonshire, on October 26, 2006.

Katrina Burgess, Mr Gibbings’s ex-girlfriend, and Cleveland Rogers, her half-brother, are alleged to have committed the murder. Both deny the charge.

The prosecution earlier alleged that Mr Gibbings was lured to the apartment, which he had shared with Ms Burgess, and was stabbed to death by Mr Rogers. The witness added that on October 25, he was at work until 4.30pm and spent the evening at home with his children.

He said Ms Burgess had left to get groceries at some point in the evening and returned about half an hour later.

The man added he was called by police on October 27 and asked to go to Hamilton Police Station, where police told him his wife had been involved in an affair with Mr Gibbings.

He said: “After I had finished giving my statement, I tried to call her to find out what was going on, because the officers were questioning me about Mr Gibbings. They were the ones who informed me that my wife admitted to having an affair with him.”

The witness said he only learnt Mr Gibbings’s last name after his death and still did not know where he lived.

He told the court he was “sad and disappointed”, not angry, to discover his wife’s infidelity, but agreed it had contributed to their divorce.

The court also heard evidence from several of Ms Burgess’s former co-workers.

Her former colleagues said that the day before Mr Gibbings’s body was found, Ms Burgess came to work in casual clothes instead of her usual business wear and was “in and out” of the office over the morning.

One colleague, Shakira Richardson, said Ms Burgess had told her she was moving house.

Other colleagues told the court that they had heard Ms Burgess and Mr Gibbings have arguments. Dawn Phillips, who had left the office two years before Mr Gibbings’s murder, said Ms Burgess feared that Mr Gibbings had cheated on her.

Ms Phillips said: “She did say once they had argued and she had hit him, but she didn’t say how she hit him or where she hit him.”

The trial continues.

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