A mother of two found strangled to death in her car four years ago was murdered by her husband, a prosecution lawyer alleged yesterday.
Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions pointed to an extramarital affair as a possible motive for the killing.
Mr John Diver pleaded not guilty to the murder when he was arraigned before Mr Justice Smith in the Central Criminal Court. The body of his wife, Geraldine Diver, was found in her car at the entrance to Buckley's builders' providers yard on Robinhood Road, Clondalkin, on December 2nd, 1996.
Mrs Diver (42) and her husband, John, now 60, lived in Walkinstown, Dublin, with their two children, a daughter and a son.
Counsel for the DPP, Mr Edward Comyn SC, told the jury Mrs Diver's body was found when a security guard came upon a car as he did his rounds checking premises in the local area on December 2nd, 1996. It was at the gateway to the builders' providers firm and its engine was running.
The security guard went over and turned the engine off, finding the body of a woman in the driver's seat. There was material in the form of a ligature around her neck which turned out to be a man's tie.
As the body was still warm, Mrs Diver was brought to St James's Hospital, but was pronounced dead at 11.28 p.m.
The prosecution will call evidence from a neighbour of the Divers who told gardai that at around 9.25 p.m. he saw Mrs Diver driving her car in Kilnamanagh Road, with the accused Mr Diver "immediately behind her in the back seat". According to staff witnesses, Mrs Diver had left her work at the Coombe Hospital between 9.15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. that night.
A telephonist would give evidence that a male phone caller was put through to Mrs Diver some time after 6 p.m., and that the telephonist "immediately recognised [the voice] as that of the accused", she having worked beside him for six years.
The jury heard that along with his wife, Mr Diver had worked at the Coombe, first as a theatre orderly and then as a switchboard operator, before retiring in November 1995. Prosecution counsel said the Divers married in July 1976 and until the end of 1995 "there didn't appear to be any reason to suspect that their relationship was anything but normal".
But coming up to December 1995, Geraldine Diver began to keep "irregular hours" outside her working time, including "staying out late at night and even going away for weekends".
The reason appeared to be an extramarital relationship that she was having with a young male employee of Superquinn in Walkinstown, Mr Comyn said.
The trial continues today.