A mother of two accused of murdering her husband with her alleged lover became a suspect less than a fortnight after he disappeared in August 2000.
Belfast Crown Court heard that police never told Mrs Julie McGinley (31) she was a suspect, in case it alerted her and two others originally from the Republic that they were under investigation into the disappearance of her husband Gerry.
A detective sergeant claimed police also believed Mrs McGinley had already destroyed vital evidence, and to have cautioned her at the time could have resulted in either the removal or destruction of other evidence.
"That is why we didn't caution Mrs McGinley at that time," Sgt Trevor Stevenson said.
Mrs McGinley, Windmill Drive, Enniskillen, and her alleged lover, Mr Michael Monaghan (44), originally from Grange, Co Sligo, but with an address at Ann Street, Enniskillen, both deny murdering Mr McGinley (34), whose badly decomposed body was uncovered in a shallow grave in a Co Leitrim wood in June last year.
Mr McGinley allegedly disappeared from his Ballinamallard home in Co Fermanagh on August 13th, 2000, but this was not formally reported to police by his wife Julie until August 17th, four days later.
Initially police treated his alleged disappearance as a "missing person" inquiry, but by August 24th Supt Brian McArthur, who took over the investigation, had raised the status of the inquiry to that of a "murder investigation".
Asked by defence QC Mr Terence McDonald had it never occurred to Sgt Stevenson that Mrs McGinley should have been cautioned, he explained that police were faced "with a particularly difficult inquiry from the outset".
Sgt Stevenson said although police had no body, they believed Mr McGinley was murdered and "what we had, we believed was evidence being destroyed".
He added: "Because of the particular circumstances of this case, two other suspects were resident, or ex-residents of the Republic of Ireland" who could not formally be interviewed either until police could prove Mr McGinley was dead.
The sergeant admitted that "technically" the police were in breach of their own code of conduct whereby a suspect must be cautioned before being questioned.
Sgt Stevenson said to have cautioned Mrs McGinley could have "caused other suspects to flee or for other evidence to be destroyed or moved".