A FORMER bomb disposal expert accused of booby trapping his wife’s car with a grenade told police, “I can’t believe it. I didn’t do it. I love her to bits.”

Nicholas Fabian, 33, a reservist soldier from Highview, Vigo, allegedly tried to kill his wife, Victoria, by planting a grenade in her car on March 5 last year.

Fabian denies attempted murder, causing GBH with intent and causing an explosion likely to endanger life.

Jurors listened at Maidstone Crown Court on February 14 as transcripts of police interviews were read out.

When asked if he knew what had caused the explosion, Fabian said: “No, I don’t. I have no idea.”

Fabian said he and his wife Victoria, also 33, were very happy and had been planning a family day out on the day of the explosion.

He told police: “We were happy as we normally are. I was going to be posted to Afghanistan in a few days so we wanted to make the most of our time together.”

But while under caution in another interview, Fabian admitted he had cheated on his wife with Jackie Phillips - who he had worked with at Battersea Dogs Home.

He said: “It wasn’t anything serious, it was just a bit of fun.

“She didn’t mind being the other woman.”

Fabian has already pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing ammunition but said this had been a mistake and he was going to return it.

When police searched Fabian’s shed they found 10 bullets had been emptied into a tupperware container along with firework gun powder.

He told police: “I like rockets, I can’t help it.

“I just wanted to make some rockets and make them nice for my son, that’s it.”

At a previous sitting on February 8, the court heard from Mrs Fabian, who continues to use crutches following serious leg injuries caused by the explosion.

She told the court she had not realised how bad the blast was until she saw her husband crying and running to pull her from the car.

She was setting out for her mother's house when the vehicle blew up.

Neither her unborn child or her nine-year-old son Charlie, who was also in the car, were injured.

She told the court about a letter she had left for her husband to read before she left for her night shift at Tonbridge Cottage Hospital the night before the explosion.

The letter confronted Fabian about credit card debts which Mrs Fabian had discovered. But when she returned from work the letter had not been read.

The couple had been hoping to move to a bigger house as they had been expecting their second child together, Freddie.

The trial continues.