A WOMAN who kept secret the fact that her husband was a murderer finally revealed the truth the day her divorce came through.

Janet Garrity told police that her ex husband, Brian, was responsible for savagely attacking a garage worker with a claw hammer and stealing takings from the safe in a brutal Lancaster incident.

Several weeks later, 72 year old victim, Charles Gunn, died in hospital.

Justice caught up with Garrity, 45, when he pleaded guilty today to murder and was given life imprisonment.

The judge passing sentence at Preston Crown Court said he well remembered the shock and outrage the crime caused at the time.

The defendant, of Woodacre Road, Moor Nook, Preston, admitted murder and also theft relating to the incident at the garage on the A6 at Slyne Road, Lancaster, dating back to November 1977.

Mr David Turner, prosecuting, told the court: "For over 20 years, Janet Garrity, the defendant's wide, kept a guilty secret.

She knew that she had helped to cover up a murder committed by her husband and had given a false statement to support her husband's alibi.

"In December 2000 Janet decided to tell the police of her guilty secret."

She told her officers that on the night of November 6, 1977, her husband had left their flat, taking a claw hammer with him.

He later returned carrying a bank cash bag and his shirt covered in blood.

He did not have the hammer.

He told her he had got the cash from the little garage where he had previously worked for a short time, two years earlier.

Garrity said he had: "Hit the little guy on the head' " with the hammer.

He went on to dispose of his shirt and next day told his wife that if the police called she was to say they had both stayed in the flat that night.

Mr Turner said: "It is fair to say she was in a difficult position.

She was only just 18.

She was away from her own family and recently married to the defendant.

For reasons of loyalty she lied to the police.

"No doubt this crime would have remained unsolved forever had she not decided to go to the police 23 years later to tell what she knew."

As a result, the case was re-opened and in August last year the defendant was arrested and interviewed.

He admitted causing the injuries that led to the death of Mr Gunn who had been working as a part time petrol pump attendant for around two months.

He had been carrying out his final task of taking keys to a safe house for safe keeping when attacked.

Mr Gunn was found next morning by a cleaner who literally stumbled over him in the darkness.

His face was covered in blood, but he was still moving.

He had suffered terrible injuries, being struck three heavy blows to the skull with the claw hammer.

His injuries included two fractures to the left side of the jaw.

He underwent three operations, following admission to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

After the third op the elderly man recovered, but went on to get meningitis, pneumonia and his conditions worsened before he died on December 2.

Garrity told the police in interview: "I did lash out in panic.

I did steal the money."

The defendant appeared in court ...