A RAF SERGEANT has spoken of his shock at seeing his best man and lifelong friend jailed at the end of a sensational court case that hit the national headlines.

Michael Edmonds grew up with close neighbour Neil Pearson in Askham Lane, York.

Today, Pearson, 35, is serving two years for aiding and abetting his wife Antonia Pearson-Gaballonie, also 35, to attack a woman with scissors.

She is serving seven years for systematically torturing and humiliating for years her sister-in-law by a previous marriage, Victoria Sandeman, 26, and turning her into a naked slave. The abuse began before she met Pearson.

"He is a genuine nice guy," Mr Edmonds said of Pearson. "He had mentioned this new girl. Basically he had got a new girlfriend. She was the girl of his dreams. How wrong your dreams can be."

Sentencing the couple formerly of New Lane, Acomb, on Monday, the Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told Pearson: "You have allowed yourself to be influenced and overborne by your partner, your wife. This is a woman capable of domineering others."

He also warned that she was capable of going to going to "great lengths" to achieve her aim.

The couple married in June 2004 and Mr Edmonds agreed that Pearson's wife was the reason behind his crime. "It (his marriage) must have changed his life. It's gone awfully wrong for him. That is why I was so shocked, absolutely shaken."

He had no idea about the court case, which began in April 2005, until it hit the headlines in September this year.

Mr Edmonds and Pearson have been friends since childhood. They were schoolmates at what is now Westfield Primary Community School in Askham Lane and visited each other on Christmas Day to compare presents.

They were Cubs and Scouts together in the 2nd Acomb troop, and though they went to different secondary schools and later Mr Edmonds left York to travel the world with the RAF, they have stayed in contact.

Pearson was best man at Mr Edmonds' wedding and Mr Edmonds would have gone to Pearson's wedding, but he was serving abroad at the time.

He now lives in Oxfordshire.

After Pearson-Gaballonie was remanded in custody at the end of their trial in early September, Pearson gave up his job as parts manager for a car dealership to look after her six children, only one of which was his.