The trial of a South African man accused of murdering his Irish-born wife and mother of their six children was told that the couple's marriage was in difficulty.
Anton Mulder (44), Maelduin, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, pleaded not guilty to the murder, but guilty to the manslaughter of his wife Colleen Suzanne Mulder.
She was found dead in the bedroom of their house at the same address on December 17th, 2004.
In his opening statement at the Central Criminal Court yesterday, Gerard Clarke SC, said the State's case was that Mulder, a native of South Africa, strangled his wife with his hands in a bed sometime around 10am that morning.
The couple, who had married in South Africa in 1985, had been experiencing marital difficulties, and prior to this incident they had been sleeping in separate beds.
In the early 1990s they came to live in Bangor, Co Down. Ms Mulder was a native of the town, before she and her family moved to South Africa in 1970.
The couple's six children, four girls and two boys are aged between 20 and three years of age.
In 2002 the family moved to Co Meath after the accused was appointed a regional manager with Kentucky Fried Chicken. The victim's sister, Ms Ann Czerepowicz, told the court her sister's marriage was not good at all. She said that when her sister went back to Bangor in late 2004, to where their mother lives, Mulder contacted her.
This was unusual, as they did not have much of a relationship.Mulder met her in Belfast and told her that he loved her sister and was concerned about her, and that she was suffering from depression. She felt that Mulder was trying to find out what her sister's intentions were.
Ms Czerepowicz admitted that she and her sister had spoken to a solicitor about getting custody of her children.
Under cross-examination from Mulder's counsel, Roddy O'Hanlon SC, she said she was not aware that her late sister had an affair with a man called Johan. She said her sister had told her that Johan was a good friend. The witness also said her sister had a miscarriage in July 2004. After that her attitude to her husband changed.
After spending some time in Bangor, Ms Mulder returned to Dunshaughlin that December, and intended to stay there over the Christmas period.
Ms Czerepowicz added that her sister gave Anton the impression that everything was OK, because she wanted her children with her.
Andrea Pollock, Ms Mulder's sister-in-law, said the dead woman was like a second mother to her children. She told the court she found a mobile phone, a tape and a note belonging to the dead woman in the house in Dunshaughlin a few days after the incident. The contents of the note shocked her and she gave the items to gardaí.
Garda Derek Halligan said he went to the scene with Garda June McGuire after a woman called to Dunshaughlin Garda station. The two gardaí went to the house and were let in by the accused. Mulder, who was very upset at the time, pointed up the stairs and said: "She is up there." They found his wife lying on a bed in an upstairs bedroom. Just as he was about to call for an ambulance, one arrived.
He later spoke to Mulder who told him, "it was an argument with verbal abuse. I grabbed her around the neck and told her to shut up and leave me alone". Garda McGuire said that Mulder was crying when they arrived at the house. After they went upstairs, the garda said she called out to Ms Mulder, but there was no response. There was bruising around the victim's neck, she said.
The trial continues.