THE wife of a Belfast man who died after a brawl with a rugby player in Australia said bitterly at the weekend that it was safer living in Belfast's Falls Road. Her husband had been involved in a row with a rugby player in Perth.
Mrs Catherine McLoughlin (36), said she and her husband Stephen, had gone to Australia to get away from the Troubles.
She was highly critical of the court after a verdict of not guilty had been returned on the man involved on Friday.
After placing flowers on her husband's grave on Saturday, she said: "I would have got more justice back in Belfast, and that's saying something."
She added: "Believe it or not, at the moment the Falls Road is better than being here".
Last July Mr McLoughlin died of head injuries after being punched in the head and allegedly kicked outside a Perth nightclub by a professional rugby player, Mr Daio Powell (23), who is Welsh.
However, on Friday last Mr Powell, who had been charged with manslaughter, was acquitted after a five day trial in Western Australia's Supreme Court.
Mrs McLoughlin, who had been living back with her parents in the Falls Road since her husband's death, had returned to Perth for the trial.
She said on Saturday: "The kids were born here and we came here to start a new life."
She described her husband as a loving father of their two daughters, aged three and one.
Her husband, who weighed 57 kg, would have been no match for the imposing rugby player of 95 kg.
The court heard Mr McLoughlin, who was with a group that had been drinking, suddenly "blew up" after Mr Powell asked him if he was English.
Mr Powell, in his evidence, said McLoughlin suddenly replied: "No, I'm not fucking English, I'm Irish and I don't like you English bastards".
The court heard Mr McLoughlin told his friends Mr Powell's group of English friends were "ex army and were out to get him because he was Irish.
It was alleged that after a brief fight in the nightclub, Mr Powell attacked McLoughlin outside, punching him twice in the face and kicking him in the head.