Man accused of murdering wife said he would 'do time' for her
The murder trial of a Donegal father-of-four accused of the murder of his estranged wife has heard that he allegedly said: "I’ll do time for her".
Mr Gary McCrea, aged 40, of Ballybulgin, Laghy, Co. Donegal. Mr McCrea denies the murder of his estranged wife Mrs Dolores McCrea, aged 39, of Ballintra, Co. Donegal, on a date unknown between January 20 and January 22, 2004. It is alleged that Mr McCrea murdered his wife and the mother of his four children and then burned her body in a fire at the rear of the old family home.
Mr Alister McClay told the jury that he had known the McCrea’s for many years and had been aware that they had broken up. After the break-up, Mr McClay said the accused talked "a lot" about Dolores.
At Christmas 2003, Mr McClay said he bumped into the accused in Carolan’s pub in Laghy. "He was having a conversation about Dolores and the children. He was very bitter", Mr McClay told the jury. "He never used her name, it was ‘bitch’ or ‘whore’", he added.
Mr McClay said he believed that the accused was at his "wits end" with the break up of the marriage and the custody of his four teenage daughters. "He made a comment that he was going to sort it out", Mr McClay said.
"He more or less said he was going to take matters into his own hands", he told the jury. After he told the accused to "cop himself on", Mr McCrea allegedly said; "I’ll do time for her", referring to his estranged wife.
Mr Eamon Doherty, a haulage contractor from Laghy in co Donegal, told the jury that on the night of January 20, 2004, the accused called to his house. Mr Doherty said Mr McCrea said his estranged wife had called earlier that evening to sell her car to him for €1,000. The accused told Mr Doherty that Dolores had been "a bit on edge" and that a car had pulled up which she got into and drove away in the Bridgetown direction. Mr Doherty said the accused man said his wife was "going away for a few days" and for him to mind the girls.
Four days later, January 24, 2004, Mr Doherty said the accused rang his mobile phone. Mr McCrea asked him to call down to him for a chat but Mr Doherty told the court that he declined to do so. Mr Doherty said the accused told him that bones, which had been discovered in a smouldering fire at his house, were "probably lying there for years and that they were only old bones".
The State’s case has concluded and closing speeches will begin tomorrow before Mr Justice Michael Hanna.
