The wife of a murder suspect has told the Central Criminal Court that her husband had told her his gay sexual partner forced him at knifepoint to strangle a prostitute before her naked body was dumped in a ditch in the Dublin mountains.
Mr Philip Colgan (27), of Crannagh Castle, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, has denied murdering Ms Layla Brennan (24), of Moorefield Green, Ronanstown, Co Dublin, on March 2nd 1999.
Mrs Mary Colgan told the court that during a visit to the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, where her husband was being detained, he had said he killed Ms Brennan because a Scottish man, Wayne, had held him at knifepoint and forced him to do so.
Mrs Colgan told the court her husband had previously told her that he had killed Ms Brennan and he was subsequently questioned and detained by gardai and later admitted to the Central Mental Hospital.
He later "retracted the story and refused to discuss it further with me", she said.
Det Sgt Tom Doyle told the court that the accused gave a signed statement to gardai admitting the killing.
He said, according to the statement, that he grabbed her by the throat. "I knew if I let go I'd be going back to prison. I took off her bra and tightened it around her neck. and tightened it as tight as I could for 10, 15, 20 seconds. I knew she was dead."
The trial before Mr Justice Butler and a jury continues today.