A MAN murdered his ex-wife's new husband in an act of "revenge and retribution", a jury was told.

Forty-year-old Allan Kimber, of Stert Street, Abingdon, denies shooting Gary Morgan on October 17 last year.

Mr Morgan died yards from the home he shared with wife Helen on Danesbrook Farm, Stanton St John, after being shot in the neck by a killer "who had laid in wait for him", prosecutor Neil Moore said at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday.

He alleged Kimber, a bus driver, had told a girlfriend he wanted to "do Gary Morgan over" and claimed he had "higher contacts" who could help him achieve this.

The prosecution alleges Kimber bought a deactivated Walther PPK pistol over the internet that he converted to fire home-made bullets.

He had met Helen Morgan in May 2000 at the Stagecoach bus company and they married the following summer.

But the jury heard how their marriage ended a year later when his wife threw him out of their Bicester home, after she said she grew tired of his moods, jealousy and verbally aggressive behaviour.

She told the jury that a month later she took in a lodger, Mr Morgan so that she could pay the mortgage. A few weeks after he moved in the pair began a relationship and married in January 2004.

Mr Moore said witnesses saw Kimber "sobbing his eyes out" at work in the days after his wife ended their marriage.

Mr Moore said: "This jealous man Kimber continued to harbour these feelings of hatred towards Gary Morgan and he stewed in them until, on the morning of October 17, in an act of revenge and retribution, he executed his plan to kill the man he believed had taken Helen away from him."

On the morning Mr Morgan died, he had just left home and was on his way to Warburton's Bakery in Bicester where he worked as a delivery driver.

He left home at about 3.15am.

The jury heard how he was found by his wife slumped in his car, which was in a ditch on the lane which ran from their cottage to the main road. The emergency services were called and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Moore told the jury how Kimber's Abingdon flat had been searched by police and a gun and ammunition had been found under his kitchen sink.

Mr Moore said: "The bullet which killed Gary Morgan at one stage was loaded in this gun."

Mrs Morgan denied questions from Kimber's defence team she had anything to do with her husband's death.

Stephen Mejzner, defending, asked Mrs Morgan, who has been married five times, why she did not attempt to call her husband's mobile phone after his boss called to say he had not arrived at work.

He also asked her why, in the immediate aftermath of the incident, she had not inquired as to what had happened to him.

After the court heard how she had racked up debts and had county court judgements against her, he asked if she was "money-motivated" before adding: "Did you have anything to do with the death of Gary Morgan?"

She replied: "No."

He said: "Did you suggest to anyone you wanted him bumped off?"

She said: "I used to joke about this with my previous marriages, but it was only a joke."

The mother-of-two, who also used to work as a bus driver, told the jury that although there had been some friction between herself and her husband because of money, their relationship was "quite strong".

She said: "I am absolutely devastated.

"My whole life has been turned upside down."

The case continues.