A South African man has been found guilty of murdering his Irish-born wife at their home in Co Meath shortly before Christmas 2004 at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
The jury took three hours to find Anton Mulder (46), Maelduin, Dunshaughlin, but originally from Durban, South Africa, guilty of murdering his wife, Colleen Suzanne Mulder, by a majority of 10 to two.
Mrs Mulder, a native of Bangor, Co Down, was found dead in an upstairs bedroom of the house they were renting on December 17th, 2004. She was wearing pyjamas and had been strangled.
During the trial the court heard that Mulder had told a colleague it would be easy to kill his wife in Ireland as he would only get a few years for manslaughter.
Mulder had previously been found guilty of murder after a five-day trial in May 2006 but this verdict was later overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal, which ordered a retrial. It gave the reason for the retrial as inappropriate interaction with the jury by Mrs Mulder's brother, William Pollock.
Mr Pollock was briefly jailed for contempt of court after an outburst in court during the jury selection procedure at the original trial. He was also involved in a separate incident during which he approached a juror and read out a newspaper article about the trial.
At the start of the current trial, Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins passed an order banning Mr Pollock or his wife from entering the grounds of the Four Courts for the duration of the trial.
During the trial the jury heard that Mrs Mulder had moved to South Africa with her family when she was seven years old. She met her husband in the mid-1980s, and shortly afterwards they were married. Their first child was born some months later.
Mulder had been working as a traffic policeman but as the economic situation in South Africa worsened he was made redundant and followed his brother- in-law Mr Pollock back to Northern Ireland to find work.
After several difficult years, during which the Mulders and their two small children moved backwards and forwards between South Africa and Northern Ireland, Mulder found work with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
By 2002 he had been promoted to regional manager for Dublin and the family moved to a rented house in Dunshaughlin. By this time there were six children.
Mrs Mulder worked part-time for Kentucky Fried Chicken, as did the two eldest children, Clinton and Christopher Mulder.
In July 2004, Mrs Mulder suffered a miscarriage and the marriage started to deteriorate. She became depressed and the couple started sleeping in separate bedrooms.
Their eldest son, Clinton, said there were frequent rows, often about the custody of the younger children. He said he had never seen his father hit his mother but "she was scared of him".
Christopher Mulder told the court he had never seen his father hit his mother "with my own eyes" but he frequently lashed out and had, in the past, "destroyed the whole house".
One of the couple's daughters, who cannot be identified because she is under age, told the court that she often stayed over at a friend's house when her mother was away. "I preferred when my mum was there. I was kind of scared of my dad."
The girl, who gave her evidence via videolink, said her parents were often arguing. "It's 'cos he was sort of annoying all the time. He used to try and start fights and she would tell him to leave her alone."
In November 2004 Mrs Mulder moved out of the house in Dunshaughlin and back to Bangor where she lived with her mother. During the trial her sister, Ann Czerepowicz, told the jury that she had accompanied her sister to visit a solicitor to ask about obtaining custody of the children.
Several witnesses during the trial said that during this period, Mulder became uncharacteristically nice. Ms Czerepowicz said she had never had much to say to her brother-in-law, but after Mrs Mulder had left he rang her and asked to see her. He told her that he was worried about his wife because she was only eating ice cubes. However, Ms Czerepowicz said: "I think it was planned out of character. He knew what he was doing."
The jury also heard that Mulder had told a South African friend of his, Andries Loubser: "I am going to kill her. In this country it's easy. Five or six years jail and I'm still young when I'm out then."
Mr Justice O'Higgins thanked the jury for their attention and care to the case before sentencing Mulder to a mandatory life sentence.
As the sentence was read out Mrs Mulder's family hugged and laughed.
Speaking outside the Four Courts Ms Czerepowicz said: "To get the verdict once was a miracle, to get it twice, I don't know quite what to say, we are over the moon. He has got what he deserved and I feel that now my sister can rest in peace, God love her."
Clinton Mulder described his mother as a "very loving, heartfelt, wonderful woman. There's no words that can describe her."