A JURY has found a man not guilty of murdering his lover's husband.

Gary McGinley had stood accused of killing Graham Boyne in his bedroom in Parkside Avenue, Bexleyheath, in the early hours of April 24 last year.

Mr Boyne's wife, Maria, who was expecting McGinley's baby at the time, was found guilty of the murder on Friday.

Her husband was found dead on his bed by his father, after suffering 27 stab wounds.

During her trial at the Old Bailey, Boyne had blamed McGinley, a warehouse worker with learning difficulties, for her husband's stabbing.

The prosecution claimed that the two worked together so she could inherit her husband's house, disposed of the knife and fled to Southend to construct an alibi.

Friend Melanie Castleton said Boyne would often talk about Mr Boyne's house as being half hers.

She said Boyne, who was not living with her husband at the time, had told her: "If Graham wasn't here I'd have my own house back.

"She spoke of getting rid of him once and for all and putting sleeping pills in his vodka."

McGinley had told the court he had turned up at the Boynes' home to find his lover with blood all over her hands.

The 24-year-old said at first he had not believed what she had told him.

He said: "Then I saw blood on her hands.

"I went into the house and she was screaming 'What have I done'?"

McGinley said when he went in he saw Mr Boyne lying on the bloodstained bed.

He said: "I thought he was dead.

"I said to Maria 'What have you done'? Maria said she was going to kill herself.

"She said she did it for us. It made me feel guilty."

McGinley said he told Boyne to call the police and an ambulance but she said no.

He told the court he had loved Boyne at the time of the murder and had wanted to protect her.

But when Boyne gave her evidence, she claimed it was McGinley who had stabbed her husband.

After the killing Boyne took her husband's bloody neck chain.

The couple then drove to Southend, stopping off at the Morrison's car park in Erith, where Boyne claimed McGinley suggested dropping the knife into the River Thames at the Erith pier.

Officers from the Marine Support Unit of the Met Police's Thames division recovered a knife following a two-day fingertip search of the mudflats by the pier, at the weekend.

When shown photographs of the recovered knife, Boyne said it could have been the murder weapon.

The couple cleaned Mr Boyne's chain of blood and pawned it in Southend for £220 spending some of the cash on a bed-and-breakfast and shopping.

After spending the night in Southend, the couple drove back to London the next day.

She said she had wanted to go to Mr Boyne's parents' home but they were not in, so she rang her sister and told her Mr Boyne was dead before going to see police.

In interviews, Boyne gave police an account of events which she later admitted was false and claimed had been designed to protect her lover.

Boyne, aged 30, of Parkside Avenue, Bexleyheath, and McGinley, aged 24, of Franklin Road, Bexleyheath, both denied murder.

Boyne will be sentenced on March 4.