Crymble wife sentenced to 20 years

A County Armagh woman found guilty of murdering her husband has been sentenced to at least 20-years imprisonment.

Jacqueline Crymble, 35, and Roger Ferguson, 31, were found guilty of murdering Paul Crymble three years ago at Richill in 20 June 2004. The father-of-two was found suffocated in his car with a plastic bag taped tightly around his neck, and his feet and hands bound with cable ties.

She claimed four masked men had broken into the family home searching for drugs and money, before attacking and kidnapping her husband.

Mr Justice McLaughlin said she will “serve every day of her 20-year sentence”.

During the four-month trial, a jury took less than four hours to find the defendants guilty.

The judge also said she was like an “executioner” who acted “without mercy” when she planned the murder, and added that she was driven by lust for money, material possessions and desire for financial gain.

He then told Ferguson that while he demonstrates how “otherwise good people are capable of committing the most appalling acts when certain circumstances combine,” he was as responsible as Crymble because he “provided the means to disable Mr Crymble and the physical strength to ensure he was overcome.”

He said Ferguson become “besotted by Jacqueline Crymble and the reality of easy sex and the prospect of a life of comparative luxury lead to your downfall.”

Dawn Ferguson, who provided them with a false alibi, was given a conditional discharge, while Ferguson’s friend Colin Robinson, aged 21 from Riverside Apartments in Gilford was jailed for three years with one year on probation for assisting offenders.

(JM)