A RETIRED chemical worker won a divorce yesterday - because his wife shifted the furniture in the family home every day of their 38-year marriage.

John Turner, 62, said he hoped the constant moving would stop when they swapped their Teesside house for a static caravan, with mostly built-in units.

But Pauline Turner, also 62, still managed to shift things around daily.

Finally he walked out and petitioned for a divorce - citing her moving mania as unreasonable behaviour. Mr Turner told Middlesbrough County Court: "There was not a day that she was not moving something. I think it was inbred in her.

"I went along with it because she would not be happy otherwise.

"We moved about two years ago into a caravan. One of the specific reasons was that she would refrain from moving furniture. But she did not keep to her agreement."

While the bed and other units were built-in and immovable, there was a three-piece suite, two sideboards, table and chairs and a TV cabinet.

He left his wife in February. Mr Turner said: "I got sick of it, but in the end I just had to keep the peace.

"Friends and neighbours thought it was a huge joke - but it was no joke to me."

Mrs Turner still lives at the caravan in Elton Court Park, Elton, near Stockton, a few miles from the Thornaby three-bedroom semi that was the marital home.

Initially, she denied acting unreasonably and refused to agree that the marriage was over. But yesterday she accepted that it had irretrievably broken down.

Mr Turner, who now lives with his sister in Romanby, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, accepted he had committed adultery from January.

As the couple left Middlesbrough County Court separately yesterday, Mrs Turner said: "Moving furniture about was just something I did, always had done and I always will do.

"I suppose everybody has their little obsession.