A man accused of murdering his wife broke down in the witness box yesterday. Mr John Diver (60) denied saying he could not remember why he went out the night his wife was strangled, or saying he must have done it.
He also pointed at gardai in the Central Criminal Court and made allegations about their treatment of him in custody. Garda witnesses have denied the allegations during their evidence.
Mr Diver has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife, Geraldine (42), who was found strangled in her car outside Buckley's builders' providers in Clondalkin on December 2nd, 1996. The couple had lived with their two children in Walkinstown, Dublin.
Mr Diver told Mr Barry White, defending, that he loved his wife. Asked if it was a deep or a shallow love, he wept. Like any marriage they had had ups and downs from time to time, "but nothing we didn't resolve at the end of the day", he said.
He had been dismissed from his job at the Coombe Women's Hospital, where his wife also worked. He supposed he got depressed after that and they got on each other's nerves. Mr Diver said he had bought three bottles of wine and drank a litre bottle and another bottle-and-a-half on the night of his wife's death. He said he went out to get chips, but it would have been shortly after nine at night and he returned home afterwards. He did not phone the hospital that night, he said. Asked what happened when gardai arrived at his door later, he said he did not recall hearing the doorbell. He thought the bell was rung by his wife and that she had left her keys behind. He could not believe it when they told him she was dead. Asked if he was intoxicated he replied: "I would say I was, yes".
On his detention in custody the day after his wife's funeral, Mr White asked him why he had not asked for a solicitor. Mr Diver said: "I don't know any solicitor." When it was pointed out that he had consulted one about a marital separation, he said it was Sunday and he thought solicitors did not work on Sundays.
Mr White read out the replies he allegedly made to the gardai. Mr Diver denied he had said he "must have been" in the back of the car as his wife drove out of their estate. He denied he had signed the interview notes, only "caution after caution after caution". He denied saying he had "blanked everything out" or that he would tell all another time.
Mr Diver denied that on January 5th, 1997, a month after his detention, he had told a family friend, Ms Marion Joyce, he could not remember when he went out the second time on the night of the killing or why. Asked if he had killed his wife he wept again and said: "I didn't".
The trial before Mr Justice Smith continues today.