The motivation behind the murder of a Co Fermanagh businessman was "old-fashioned passion", a lawyer claimed yesterday.
Concluding his opening to the Belfast Crown Court trial of mother-of-two Ms Julie McGinley and her lover, Mr Michael Monaghan, prosecuting lawyer Mr Terence Mooney QC claimed the pair had allowed this "powerful emotion" to cloud their judgment.
The pair deny murdering her husband, Gerry, in August 2000. His body was discovered 10 months later in a shallow grave in the Ballinamore woods across the border in Co Leitrim by two women out for a Sunday stroll with their children.
Mr Mooney told the jury of five women and seven men that the reason behind the killing was simple. "It's an old-fashioned motive . . . it clouded the judgment of Julie McGinley and Michael Monaghan."
He said that their passion for each other "ensured that they got rid of the one obstacle to that passion" - Mr McGinley.
He told the jury that at the end of the day this would lead them "to the one conclusion that each of them was guilty of the murder of Gerry McGinley".
He further claimed that another reason behind the murder was the dire financial straits that the McGinleys were in at that time.
The family had debts in the region of £80,000, and various policies taken out on the life of Mr McGinley could have realised over £300,000.