PETER Maine had booked a family holiday and was planning for the future before he was stabbed, his widow told his inquest.

Despite having just learned he was to be charged with conspiracy to defraud, the 56-year-old father-of-two was “fine”, Joanna Maine told today’s (Wednesday, January 7) hearing - adding she had no fears for her husband’s safety and no concerns he would harm himself.

In fact, he was “relieved” he could “do something” on hearing the Crown Prosecution Service decision two days before his death, Mrs Maine said.

“We just dealt with it. We learned to live with it,” she said.

“We talked about it. To be honest, it didn’t matter to us.

“I said to him...: ‘Let’s get it sorted and over and done with’.”

That evening the couple went out to the pub with friends; the next day they spent together preparing Mr Maine’s old legal practice in Durham for use as student accommodation.

On the Sunday Mr Maine died, his wife had plans to visit a market in Sedgefield. He was to finish the work at Old Elvet and go for a jog.

“He loved running up the riverside. He’d done it for years when he’d been in Durham,” Mrs Maine, also a solicitor, said.

But by that night, he was dead.

“I’ve spent months trying to think: was there anything? And there wasn’t.

“We’d booked a holiday. There was absolutely nothing.

“We were planning for the future,” Mrs Maine said.

The couple had been together for 30 years and previously worked together at the same law firm.

They had two grown-up daughters, Lucy and Jessica, and lived in Wynyard, near Billingham, in a £1m home formerly owned by Middlesbrough footballer Robbie Mustoe.

Mr Maine was a Boro season ticket and liked to keep fit. The summer before he died, he cycled coast to coast for Cancer Research and went to the Glastonbury festival.

A solicitor of more than 30 years’ experience, he had worked in criminal, family, personal injury, conveyancing, commercial property and civil litigation law.

However, he was facing a Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) tribunal into his conduct as a lawyer, amid claims he was involved with a firm he should have known was dubious.

Mr Maine sought advice from an old friend, Teesside-based solicitor James Watson, with whom he had studied law at Newcastle University in the 1980s.

However, he was always calm, composed and stoical, Mr Watson told the inquest.

“I never picked up the slightest hint of distress at any stage,” he added.

Even on learning criminal charges were to be brought, he was friendly, composed and relaxed, Mr Watson said.

“There was nothing in his demeanour to suggest something so dreadful could be imminent within a few hours.”

Mr Maine sent a text message to Mr Watson the day before he died. Mr Watson only picked it up two days later.

In a statement read after today’s hearing by their lawyer Tim Gittins, Mr Maine’s family said: “After 16 months and at the end of a long and thorough investigation by Durham Constabulary and the inquest today, we still do not know what happened to Peter on the morning of September 1, 2013, which is a burden that our family and friends will most likely have to carry for the rest of our lives.

“Peter was a good and kind man who was very much loved by his family and friends. He is greatly missed and we will all continue to grieve our loss...

“But it’s the happy and joyful memories of Peter that will continue to support us in the days ahead.”

The SRA proceedings were discontinued on Mr Maine’s death. Other people have been charged in connection with the fraud investigation and proceedings are ongoing.