John Diver, a former hospital porter in the Coombe Women's Hospital in Dublin, has begun a life sentence for the murder of his wife after a jury convicted him yesterday.
In the Central Criminal Court, a jury of 11 men and one woman found Diver (60) guilty of the murder of his wife, Geraldine (42), on Robinhood Road, Clondalkin, on the night of December 2nd, 1996. She and Diver had lived with their two children at Kilnamanagh Road, Walkinstown, Dublin.
He strangled her in her car outside Buckley's builders' providers on Robinhood Road, "probably manually", according to the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison. Diver wrapped a grey silk tie around her neck at least twice and tied it to the metal headrest of the car seat. He then walked home, pretending to his children that he had been "strolling" back from a take-away.
The jury reached their unanimous verdict after spending almost seven hours considering the evidence of the six-week trial.
Diver remained silent as the jury verdict was read to the court, but after sentence was handed down he began to cry.
A prosecution witness in the trial, Ms Pauline Harty, who befriended Ms Diver through her work at the Coombe, cried "Yes!" and gave a single clap. Other prosecution witnesses also broke down. Mr Justice Smith said: "I don't have any discretion in the matter. It must be life imprisonment, so I impose that sentence now." As the judge refused a defence application for leave to appeal, Diver bowed his head and continued crying.
An emotional Mr Liam Grimes, Ms Diver's father, expressed his relief outside the court.
Mr David Murphy, a first cousin of Ms Diver and a nephew of Mr Grimes, read out a statement on his behalf. In the statement, Mr Grimes, who lived across the road from his daughter and son-in-law in Kilnamanagh Road, thanked the gardai, family, friends and neighbours, and those who came forward with information in the case.
He said his main concern now was for his grandchildren. "They have lost their mother and they will now be without their father," he said. "There are no winners on this sad day."
Mr Grimes said later: "All along, I prayed for justice, and we got justice today."
He said he would return home to his grandchildren to focus on them. "There's one part dealt with today," he said. "Now we have to face the other part."
His grandchildren, a 13-yearold boy and a 17-year-old girl, who cannot be named by order of the trial judge, gave evidence in their father's defence, but the prosecution argued it was inconsistent. The children were called by the defence after Diver gave sometimes inconsistent and often aggressive evidence in the witness box.
Mr Barry White SC, defending, told the jury that although his client may have appeared truculent and somewhat abusive under cross-examination, that did not make him guilty of murder.
Ms Diver was a part-time admissions clerk at the Coombe Women's Hospital when she was murdered. Her husband had been sacked as a hospital porter at the Coombe the year before, but after trade union intervention he accepted a retirement package.
He received a lump sum redundancy payment of £20,000 and a monthly pension. A cheque for the lump sum payment arrived on the day of his wife's death.
Mr Edward Comyn SC and Mr Shane Murphy SC, prosecuting, had alleged that Diver knew his wife was having an affair with a young supermarket employee, Mr Ray Roche, and that "anger, resentment and a feeling that he had nothing further to offer" led him to murder her.
Ms Diver's body was found within an hour of her death by a security guard doing his rounds in the area of Robinhood Road industrial estate.
Her husband feigned drunkenness when gardai arrived to tell him of her death, the court had heard.