A businessman from Co Fermanagh, Mr Gerald McGinley, whose body was found in Ballinamore woods in Co Leitrim ten months after he'd disappeared in August 2000 was murdered by his 31-year-old wife Julie and her 44-year-old lover Mr Michael Monaghan, a Belfast court heard yesterday.
Prosecuting QC, Mr Terence Mooney, told the city's Crown Court that 34-year-old Mr McGinley was killed because he was "an impediment" to the illicit affair.
The lawyer further claimed that while the prosecution case was circumstantial, by the end of the trial expected to last eight weeks, the jury would be convinced "Julie McGinley and Michael Monaghan together planned and executed the murder".
"They planned and participated in it together because they wanted to get rid of Gerald McGinley so that they could continue with a relationship and from their point of view Gerald McGinley had to be removed and they did remove him," claimed Mr Mooney.
Mrs McGinley and Monaghan, both from Enniskillen, deny murdering Mr McGinley on August 13th two years ago. Mr Mooney also claimed Mr Monaghan, while discussing the disappearance with another man, "chillingly but curiously commented that he \ would probably be found pushing up heather on some mountain".