A TRAVELLER mum who is getting legal aid to fight to stay in a caravan has confessed she owns a nearby £230,000 family house.

But married Cathrine McCann from Hovefields Avenue, Wickford, insists she did not pay for the plush property in the same road.

She told the Echo her new lover had paid for it and she plans to move in with him soon.

She said: “My new partner bought it. I never contributed or paid towards the house, but I can’t deny I’ll live in it.”

Yet her husband Gerry McCann was seen by neighbours on a digger carrying out improvements outside the home on Friday.

Mrs McCann insists they’ve seperated, but are still good friends. Her admissions came as the Court of Appeal case surrounding her plot, and those of several other travellers at Hovefields and Crays Hill, drew to a close on Friday at the Royal Courts of Justice.

FULL REPORT IN TODAY'S ECHO