The one-time partner of a Littleport woman on trial for attempting to have her ex-husband killed has told a court that he recorded her conversation with another man in which she discussed how the murder could be achieved.

He has also told how she had asked him if he could find someone to carry out the killing.

Victoria Breeden, 39, is on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court accused of trying to take revenge on Rob Parkes after their relationship broke down and she lost custody of their child.

It is alleged Breeden, who has two other children, tried four times to persuade different men to kill Mr Parkes.

Breeden, who has pleaded not guilty to four counts of soliciting to murder Mr Parkes over a period of more than five years, and it is claimed she had offered one of the men £5,000.

Evidence about the recording was given by train driver, Graham Wall, who had a year-long relationship with Breeden after meeting her in October 2018.

He said that during that relationship Breeden had among other things referred to Mr Parkes as a paedophile and said conversations would turn to Mr Parkes when Breeden was upset about not being able to see her daughter.

Explaining how he came to record the phone conversation he said he had thought Breeden might have been having an affair with another man.

In a bid to find out more he left his phone on a shelf under the stairs of his Peterborough home before going to work. But instead of it recording anything about the other man he said it recorded Breeden and an old school friend, Earl Gernon, discussing a possible attack on Mr Parkes.

He told the jury: "I could not believe what I had heard. It was reference to things about Rob that concerned me."

He continued: "I tried to talk to her quietly about what I heard, I couldn't quite believe my ears.

"The fact that she was trying to get somebody to kill him".

He said he warned her that if anything happened to Mr Parkes the police would be knocking on her door but she had told him: "If he [Rob] was gone, I will be able to see my daughter."

She had told him to get rid of the recording but he had not and they split up within days of it being made.

"I was left concerned that something was going to happen to me as well," he said.

"How can you trust somebody who is planning to do that?"

Mr Wall told the court Breeden had also asked him earlier about finding a killer.

"She asked me in the February if I could get somebody to get rid of Rob. It was at my flat in Peterborough - we were in the bed, we had made love," he said

He continued: "I had her in my arms, she began to cry. I asked 'did you not enjoy it?'

"She said 'Yes, I did. That's the problem, I am happy and the girls are not."

He said she then asked him: "You must know somebody. You must know somebody who can get rid of him."

"I could not believe what she was saying to me."

The four charges accuse Breeden, of Black Horse Drove, Littleport, of: trying to persuade Hamish Lowry-Martin, Daniel Proctor, Graham Wall and Earl Gernon to murder Rob Parkes between 1 January 2014 and 1 October 2019.

The hearing continues.