A mother-of-five had to jump on to the roof of a police van to escape a fire that killed her husband, a murder trial has heard.

Anne Graham, 58, told jurors at the High Court in Glasgow she leapt from her kitchen window as flames tore through her flat in Fraserburgh.

Firefighters later found her husband Gordon's body lying in bed at their home in the Aberdeenshire town.

Ms Graham was giving evidence at the trial of Barry Henderson, 42, who denies murdering her husband, 43, and attempting to murder Ms Graham by torching their home on May 3, 1998.

The trial heard the family rented two flats at 74b and 74c High Street.

When Mr Graham had been drinking he would sleep in the upper flat, while his wife slept in the flat below.

On the night her husband died, Ms Graham woke to find her flat engulfed in choking smoke.

Defence QC Brian McConnachie asked: "A police vehicle drove under your kitchen window and a police officer caught you when you jumped, is that correct?"

Ms Graham replied: "Yes. I was shouting to them that my husband was inside."

She said around 1am she had heard footsteps in the flat above and thought it was her husband moving about.

Ms Graham said: "After the fire I realised it wasn't him. When they found him he was still in his bed."

The court heard she never returned to the flat and now lives in another part of the town.

Ms Graham was then shown a letter written by her husband to her son James when he was in Dumfries prison, dated December 2, 1997.

In it he claimed two men had tried to torch his flat by pouring petrol on the carpet on the landing but he had chased them away.

Ms Graham claimed she had no knowledge of this incident and said the claim was "just rubbish".

She told the court her husband often told stories which were untrue.

Mr McConnachie then asked about the statement she gave to police just hours after the fatal fire, in which she claimed Neil Robertson, nicknamed Nugs, had threatened her husband and their family in a phone call in March 1998.

When asked about this in the witness box, Ms Graham said: "I can't remember that."

She told the court she and her family moved to Fraserburgh in 1996 after leaving Glenrothes, Fife.

McConnachie said: "When you and your family arrived you rightly or wrongly came with a reputation."

The QC added: "You were dubbed the family from hell."

Ms Graham replied: "Yes."

Henderson, who is also accused of assaulting a woman in a nightclub in the town, denies all charges against him and has lodged special defences of alibi and incrimination.

The trial before Lord Ericht continues.