ROBERT Lund has had to rely on the support of a few close friends after being shunned by much of the community - and they are convinced he is innocent.

Claude Quarin has been in the building business for 25 years in Albi. He advertised for a labourer to work in their team of five and recognised the name Lund when Robert applied after his wife's disappearance.

"I knew what had gone on but I am also a very good judge of character," he said. "I always know in a flash whether someone is good or not.

"I would drop a mile out of the sky if you came to me in the future and said he had been found guilty of any involvement with Evelyn's disappearance. I am a very demanding boss but I am also a friend.

"What has happened to Robert is abominable. They have treated him like a criminal."

A campaign group was also set up to help Robert deal with the authorities and the language barrier.

Lily Heidge, a Dutch woman who lives five minutes from the hamlet of La Veaute, close to the Lunds' farmhouse, knew the couple well from when she and her husband Dion owned the local camp site.

She said: "Evelyn was a wonderful woman who loved cooking, gardening and her animals.

"But for Robert all the pressure of the investigation has meant that he has really not been well.

"We helped him translate documents and tried to put pressure on the authorities to move things forward. But we never got any answers.

"At the worst point he was incapable of recognising who the letters were from or what he was doing, The medication for depression was making him crazy.

"I think the gendarmes have made big mistakes in terms of not finding the body sooner and now they are trying to cover it all up.

"This was a tragedy and we have helped him, not just out of sympathy, but out of our duty that an injustice has been done."

Robert claimed one of the most upsetting things for him is the loss of contact with Evelyn's family.

He said Evelyn's youngest daughter Vicky lived with them in Darwen and again in France. But now the relationship between him and Evelyn's daughters has broken down and there is no communication between them.

There are many photos dotted around the farmhouse of all Evelyn's five grandchildren.

He said: "I do miss them all and wish none of this has happened. But now it has become a bit like me versus them." Robert speaks conversational French and enjoys tending to the farm's animals, even riding his horse Harry, which Evelyn bought him as a present.

His days are, by anyone's standards, hard.

He rises at 6am to tend to the chickens, dogs and cats and then off to Albi to work until 6pm as a builder's labourer, earning just over the minimum wage.

On his return there is hay making and general maintenance to be seen to as well as the horses.

Robert enjoys meals with friends in the neighbouring farms and the odd night out drinking in Ralmont. He has even taken responsibility for the annual village fair.

"I am more French than English now," he said.

"I was never going to run away. I love everything about life here. There is Andorra just two hours away in one direction and the mountains in the other. I could never fear what people say because I know it's not true."