Wife told lover, 21, 'to batter husband to death with a shovel' to avoid custody battle over children

A wife went on trial today accused of goading her lover into killing her husband to avoid an expensive custody battle over their young children.

Morgan Marie Mengel, 35, convinced 21-year-old Stephen Shappell to take part in her alleged murder plot to batter Kevin Mengel, 34, to death with a shovel in Chester County, Philadelphia.

The jury will then hear how Mengel tried to persuade her lover to take the full blame for the murder by pretending she had given birth to his twins while in prison.

Prosecutors plan to introduce letters in which Mengel allegedly asked Shappell to exonerate her from the murder as she had to bring up their children.

Mengel described her labour and pregnancy and even the infants weight and eye colour to Shappell in a bid to convince him not to implicate her in her husband's murder.

Shappell is set to be the star prosecution witness having already pleaded guilty to murder.

Mengel and Shappell started their affair after having met at the landscaping business Morgan ran with her husband.