THE FATHER of Marie Stewart has spoken of his family's devastation at Andrew Lindo's actions.

Music teacher Lindo was today jailed for life for murdering the mother of his two children.

Now Miss Stewart's father, Robert Stewart, has spoken about the ordeal, saying: "It is difficult to imagine a more gut wrenching experience than to be told that your daughter's body has been found in the garage of their family home.

"This, compounded by the fact that Andrew Lindo; her so called 'partner', had first killed her in the most violent manner and then allowed her body to remain undiscovered for over seven weeks, while he continued within his own fantasy world.

"He has lied, misled, abused, cheated and stolen from us on a monstrous scale.

"He delivered an acting masterclass to the world and his unfortunate female victims and has painted Marie as a lazy, feckless mother who had abandoned her children for a 'better life'. He stopped at nothing to blacken her name in the very worst possible terms. Let me tell you that he has failed.

"He also used his intimate family knowledge to deliver jealous, spiteful and vindictive text messages to me and our family in a further attempt to inflict more pain and to throw us off the scent of his evil deceit.

"He presented and cultivated this image of the perfect father figure whilst juggling affairs with numerous unsuspecting women, often at the same time, to further indulge his enormous ego.

"These were not the actions of a 'downtrodden and abused' man as he claimed, and he has lied and cheated relentlessly as well as trying any desperate tactic to save his own skin.

"Andrew Lindo has blighted the lives of his two children forever and caused irreparable pain to us all. It is inconceivable that this man could tell so many lies and cause untold damage to so many people.

"His failure to take the stand shows that he is a coward of the first order.

"It saddens me enormously that one day very soon his children will have to know exactly what he did to their mother and that we are left to pick up the consequences of his actions.

"Marie will live on in our hearts as a fabulous daughter, sister and loving mum."

Full story see Thursday's Examiner.