He would have sold his soul for a drink

Close friend Val Kemp, 49, of Abbots Road, Selby, said he would sell anything he could get hold of money to buy a drink.

She said: "He sold his DVD player and his hi-fi. He even sold his jacket up town one day just to get a drink.

"He often popped round to my house for cup of tea and a chat. Claire came with him once - she was lovely, quiet girl.

"They seemed to think a lot of each other, but Claire told me they were going through a rough patch.

"I have seen them arguing and watched Mark just walk away, saying I can't take any more of this.

"They argued quite a lot. One minute they would be talking normally and the next minute they would both blow up.

"Claire wanted a baby but I told her she didn't want a kid with Mark. He was drinking heavily and was into drugs."

Mrs Kemp, a mother-of-ten, had her house raided twice by armed police while Hobson was on the run last July after a tip-off that he might be hiding in her attic.

She said: "Mark was a happy-go-lucky sort of bloke. The trouble started when his ex-wife Kay stopped him from seeing the kids because of his heavy drinking. He could down up to 30 pints in a day."

Another friend said: "If a man talked to Claire he would get jealous and then she would get it in the neck."

Hobson married his ex-wife Kay in 1994 at Selby register office. Five years later the couple split up.

The home that Kay now shares with her new partner, in St John's Mews, Selby, was equipped with a panic alarm, with armed police outside, while Hobson was on the run.

While married to Kay he worked at Drax Power Station for a contracting firm specialising in industrial cleaning.

It was seasonal work, cleaning the plant's turbines and coal mills, along with his mate Dean Priestley, 34, of Carr Street, Selby.

Mr Priestley said: "I always got on all right with Mark.

"He was a good worker. He had a bit of a temper and a fiery side but I wouldn't have though him capable of anything like this."

Updated: 13:55 Tuesday, April 19, 2005