THE husband of a Midland tourist who died in a grass fire in South Africa has told of his disappointment after a man was found not guilty of her manslaughter.
Anthony Cooper, 37, from Brighton, walked free from a court in Cape Town after being cleared of killing 65-year-old Janet Chesworth.
He had been accused of throwing a burning cigarette on to dry grass, causing the blaze which killed Mrs Chesworth on Table Mountain two years ago.
Cooper was acquitted on charges of culpable homicide and violating the National Forestry Act by magistrate Wilma van der Merwe. Mrs Chesworth, of The Mead, Sedgley, near Dudley, had been hiking with her daughter when the fire broke out in January 2006.
She died of smoke inhalation following the fire, which more than 150 firefighters and water-carrying helicopters struggled to bring under control.
T his afternoon Jim Chesworth said at the family home that he was "very disappointed" with the verdict.
"Anyone who is married will know how I feel - Janet and I were married for 35 years.
"But at least the court proceedings are now finally all over.
"Only Mr Cooper knows whether he threw a lighted cigarette on that mountain that day and if he did do it then it is he who has to live with his conscience."
Magistrate Ms Van der Merwe said the truth of what actually happened that fateful day lay somewhere between the versions of the state's eyewitnesses and that of Cooper.
She said she did not believe his evidence that he had smoked a cigarette in his car and not outside, where strong winds were blowing, and that a spark from the matches he used had flown out of the car window.
But even though she doubted his version of events, it did not legally mean that his story could not be true and so she was forced to come to her not guilty conclusion.