A Donegal father of four accused of the murder of his estranged wife allegedly told his 14-year-old daughter that he was going to kill her mother, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
"He told me he was going to kill my mother, he told me he was going to stab my mother and rip her guts out," Dolores McCrea's teenage daughter told the court.
The second-eldest daughter of the dead woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was giving evidence in the trial of her father, Gary McCrea (40), Ballybulgin, Laghy, Co Donegal. Mr McCrea denies the murder of Dolores McCrea (39), Ballintra, Co Donegal, between January 20th and January 22nd, 2004. It is alleged that Mr McCrea murdered his wife, who was the mother of his four children, and then burned her body.
The eldest McCrea daughter, Sharon (19), told the court that there had been a custody dispute between her father and mother after they split up in 2003. "He always maintained that mum didn't care about any of the children, that he wanted to get full custody, he said that he was going to keep fighting in the courts for full custody, he said he'd fight and that if he didn't get it that he'd kill her. He'd be able to do time for her, that he'd be out in no time and that he'd get his family back."
Sharon McCrea told the court her mother always wore gold jewellery including three rings. She then identified a ring shown to her in court saying "that's the same one that mum wore".
Sharon McCrea's younger sister told Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, that she was living with her father at the time her mother disappeared. The 15-year-old told the jury that she originally moved out with her mother after her parents split up in April 2003 and her mother initially had full custody of the four girls.
The teenager said her father used to ring her several times a day. "He would tell me if I moved with him, I would have a better life." She told the court the accused said to her that her mother just wanted her "to be there to do the cleaning and the tidying up and looking after the girls," she added.
"He used to go on about other men, that she was a whore. He used to call her names, he used to say she was 'riding' people, that she was a tramp and a walking disease," the teenager told the court.
Dolores McCrea's daughter, who was just 14 years old at the time, told the court she was upset about this and that she attended a psychologist. "My father told me that I should get away from there, that I would have a better life [ with him]. He told me that if I stayed with my mum and sisters, a man called Willie Armstrong would become my new father," she said. "He used to tell me that I wasn't wanted there," she added. "I heard it so much that I believed him," the 15-year-old said.
She said she moved to her father's home in Ballybulgin in August 2003. The first few days, she told the court were "okay" but after a while, she said "every conversation" was about her mother. Her father called her mother a "tramp" and said that she was having relationships with different men including Willie Armstrong, from Kesh, Co Fermanagh.
The teenager said her father "really" had "it in" for this man. "He did make me believe my mum was having an affair with Willie Armstrong," she told the court. She added that her father had talked about getting a man to "badly beat Willie Armstrong up". "He told me he was going to kill my mother, he told me he was going to stab my mother and rip her guts out."
The trial continues.