A father of triplets was murdered by his wife and her lover because he was an impediment to their two-year affair, which he had uncovered, Belfast Crown Court heard yesterday.
Mr Paul Gault (34) was allegedly bludgeoned to death with a hockey stick in the bedroom of his Audley Avenue home in Lisburn by his wife's lover, Mr Gordon Graham.
Mr Patrick Lynch QC, prosecuting, claimed that Ms Lesley Gault, who worked with Mr Graham at the Fire Authority headquarters in Lisburn, hatched "a terrible scheme" less than three weeks after Mr Gault uncovered their affair.
After the killing the Gault home was ransacked, allegedly to make it appear as if Mr Gault had been the victim of a burglary which had gone wrong. But Mr Lynch claimed this was clearly a sham designed to cover up a deliberate murder.
Both Ms Gault and Mr Graham (40), from Wheatfield, Ballygowan, Co Down, deny murder.
Letters pledging undying love written by Ms Gault and Mr Graham were read to the court.
In one, written just a month before the alleged murder, Mr Graham pledged to Ms Gault: "Soon, my love, we will escape from the things that temporarily trap us . . . We will never regret the step we're about to take and will never be sorry that we got together."
Mr Lynch said that after Mr Gault uncovered their affair, Mr Graham wrote in his notebook: "I hate, hate, hate him \ mistreating and abusing someone that I'm so in love with, but we know now that he has lost and that we will be together and make sure of all the dreams and hopes that we have shared."
Mr Graham sat in the dock looking straight ahead as his love notes were read, while Ms Gault sat with her head bowed as extracts from some of her letters were also read.
On the morning he was killed, Mr Gault and his wife left their children to school, after which Mr Gault was dropped back home to finish the packing for a break at the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.
However, Mr Lynch said, while his wife did some last-minute shopping, Mr Gault walked into a trap, as his wife's lover, Mr Graham, lay in wait for him in his own bedroom.
Counsel said the murder was overheard by the Gaults' next-door neighbour, as he worked in the bedroom of his own home.
The neighbour heard voices, then banging and a sound as if someone was leaving the house, but "he gave no second thought to this at the time and went about his business", said Mr Lynch.
Mr Gault was found dead in his blood-spattered bedroom and a post-mortem later revealed that his skull had "caved in" caused by at least three blows to the head with a hockey stick. The trial continues.