A husband has told how his dying wife’s eyes rolled back into her head after eating a reheated Christmas dinner at one of the country’s top pub chains, a court heard.

Mother-of-one Della Callagher died and 32 other diners became seriously ill after eating the turkey dinner at the Railway Hotel, Hornchurch, Essex.

The 46-year-old became unwell on Boxing Day and her devastated husband told the court how his wife began shaking and her eyes rolled back into her head.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard she was sent home from Queen’s Hospital, Romford, and she died on December 27.

Guests paid £39.95 for a meal which had been cooked the day before and given a second blast on a hotplate before it was brought to the table.

Prosecutors claimed the food was not allowed to cool when it was first cooked and then not properly reheated, creating a perfect breeding ground for the deadly Clostridium bacteria.

After the outbreak landlady Anne-Marie McSweeney, 40, and chef Mehmet Kaya, 37 disposed of all the waste food, preventing health inspectors from taking samples. They also forged kitchen records.

They were both found guilty perverting the course of justice for falsifying food safety records.