A 46-year-old Co Waterford man was given two concurrent life sentences yesterday after pleading guilty to the murder of his wife and a man he suspected was her lover.
At the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, Declan Power, a mechanic from Bawnacomera, Kinsalebeg, Ardmore, Co Waterford, admitted the murders of Joan Power (40) and well-known publican Maurice Curran (48) on March 9th, 2002.
The court heard that Power beat the mother-of-three and stabbed her to death with a kitchen knife at the home they shared in Ardmore. He then set out to the nearby village of Clashmore, where he confronted Mr Curran outside his pub and shot him in the chest and head, fatally wounding him.
Supt Michael Blake told the court that Power gave himself up to gardaí following the double murder and described himself as "suspicious, jealous and possessive of his wife". He suspected her of having an affair and his suspicions were heightened when his wife made a trip to Dublin two days before the murders.
"There was a confrontation when she returned," Supt Blake told Paul O'Higgins SC for the prosecution. "He killed her in an argument, striking her first with a rubber mallet and then stabbing her with a kitchen knife."
Mr Curran, who was the owner of The Decies Bar, Main Street, Clashmore, Co Waterford, was a married man with three children.
Supt Blake gave evidence that Power called to Mr Curran's bar in the early hours of the morning to confront Mr Curran about his suspicions.
Following a row, Power retrieved a sawn-off shotgun from his car and shot him twice. Power discharged a third shot as the wounded man tried to run away, but he collapsed and died on the roadside.
After killing his wife, Power rang his employers and the Garda Síochána to inform them that he had killed her.
Gardaí arrived at the scene after 5 a.m. and forcefully entered the house to find Joan Power lying on the ground. She was pronounced dead by a doctor shortly afterwards.
A taxi returning from nearby Youghal, Co Cork, came across Mr Curran's body lying on the road and alerted gardaí. He too was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
Joan Power was a former employee at Mr Curran's bar where she worked for a number of years.
Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for the defence, said his client was "devastated with remorse" and had been suicidal since the killings.
Supt Blake said he believed Power's children had stood by him throughout the tragedy and agreed with Mr MacEntee that the double murder was "totally out of character".
Power's family were visibly upset in court as Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed two concurrent life sentences on their father.