The mother of a man allegedly killed by his bigamist wife was prevented from speaking to her son just hours before he died, a court heard.

Advertising manager Julian Webb died from a cocktail of aspirin and anti-depressants which the prosecution says was put in a curry by his wife Dena Thompson at their home in Douglas Close, Yapton, on his 31st birthday.

She is on trial at the Old Bailey where she denies murdering her husband because she feared her double life as a bigamist and a fraudster who stole £23,000 from a building society was about to be revealed.

Mr Webb's mother Rosemary told the trial today she tried to telephone her son three times but was prevented from speaking to him by Thompson.

She said: "I'd rung to wish him a happy birthday. She said to me: 'He's in bed, he's asleep, he's ill.'

"I said: 'What's the nature of the illness?'

"She said he'd been ill since Tuesday - this was a Thursday - and that he had been drinking and that he'd had too much sun.

"I probably asked her what he had been drinking because this was out of character and I don't remember that she could tell me what it was, but she did imply it was alcohol.

"She just said he'd been working hard and was sort of having trouble at work. But she didn't say more than that and I didn't take much notice because the last time I'd spoken to him he had been upbeat and said how much he enjoyed his job, so I thought if it was anything it must have been temporary."

Mrs Webb told the court she became worried and asked Thompson if she'd called the doctor but she told her Julian had said he didn't want to see one.

Around three hours after the phone call, made at 6pm, Mrs Webb called Thompson again. She said Thompson sounded very agitated, saying he was being very sick and she had to go to him.

"I said again: 'Have you called the doctor' and she said again: 'No, Julian doesn't want a doctor.'

"I said: 'Look, call him, it doesn't matter if Julian doesn't want the doctor, call him anyway' but before she put the phone down she said 'I've got to go to him. I'll call you back'."

Thompson called again at around 9.40pm.

Mrs Webb said: "She then seemed to be very calm again and quite chatty. She said he'd been sick and had a bowl beside his bed, but he had now gone to sleep.

"I said: 'If he's feeling better, could you go and ask him to speak to me?'

"She said no, she thought he'd gone to sleep and should be left to sleep it off. I felt there was some merit in that, although I would have liked to have spoken to him.

"I asked again if she'd called the doctor and she said no and I sort of accepted that, but still with some worries."

Mrs Webb was told by police at about 5am the following morning that Julian had died.

She said: "I was just devastated so I began to lose a sense of time, but I think it was around 7 o'clock and her father (Thompson's) spoke to me first and said 'Have the police been?' and I said yes and Dena spoke to me.

"She said again that he'd been drinking and that he had some tablets and that the ambulance men took bottles away and that she didn't know what they were, but that they'd been taken from the bedside cabinet."

The trial continues.