A man jailed for life for the murder of his wife has lost his appeal against his conviction. However, the Court of Criminal Appeal said it would hear on April 10th an application by John Diver's lawyers for leave to ask the Supreme Court to determine a point of law.
The point of law relates to the admissibility of evidence where there has been a breach of Garda custody regulations.
Diver (61), a father of two, of Kilnamanagh Road, Walkinstown, Dublin, was found guilty in November 2000 of murdering his wife Geraldine (42) in her car on December 2nd, 1996. His trial at the Central Criminal Court heard he strangled her with a silk tie.
The six-week trial was told Diver, a former hospital porter, murdered his wife after learning she was having an affair. The prosecution claimed that Diver had become aware that his wife was having an affair with a supermarket employee and that anger, resentment and frustration led him to murder her.
Diver denied he knew of his wife's affair before her death. He claimed partial confessions made under Garda interrogation were partial admissions which were the suggestions of gardaí rather than his own.
Refusing Diver's application yesterday, Mr Justice Geoghegan, sitting with Mr Justice O'Sullivan and Mr Justice Kearns, said the court believed Diver's trial had been impeccably conducted by the judge and the court had no hesitation in dismissing leave to appeal on all the grounds advanced.
While there had been breaches of custody regulations in the case, they were not such as to prevent the trial judge, using his discretion, from permitting evidence to be admitted.
No injustice had been done in allowing such evidence in, the court ruled.