A Dublin woman has denied at a murder trial that her friend's plans to kill his wife "were like something from a Road Runner or Donald Duck cartoon".
Assurance agent Ms Debra O'Connell said she did not know whether to believe bookkeeper Mr Paul O'Donohoe when he said he tried to kill his wife, Miriam, on three occasions.
Ms O'Connell also told the court that, after the killing, Mr O'Donohoe confessed that he had previously hired an assassin to gas Miriam. She said Mr O'Donohoe told her the assassin killed Miriam in her home after first checking that her two children were not in the house.
Defence counsel, Mr Hugh Harnett SC, suggested to Ms O'Connell that his client's alleged confessions were "the stuff of bad TV".
Ms O'Connell also told the court that she was in contact with a Supt Derek Byrne about 10 to 20 times after Ms Miriam O'Donohoe's death but declined his request to wear a recording device during her conversations with Mr O'Donohoe.
Ms O'Connell said she asked Supt Byrne what would happen if she were convicted of being an accomplice to murder and he told her that she would serve 15 years in prison. She told the court that she spoke to gardai because she had nothing to fear and had not committed a crime.
It was the ninth day of the trial of Mr O'Donohoe (44) of Aberdeen Street, Dublin, who denies the murder or manslaughter of his 42-year-old estranged wife, Miriam, at her home in Ashfield Gardens, Mulhuddart on January 25th, 1997.
Ms O'Connell also denied lying about her relationship with Mr O'Donohoe and said they were never more than friends. She said that after Ms O'Donohoe was found dead in her home, she had many conversations with Mr O'Donohoe. He initially denied killing her but later told her that he had hired a man called "Philo" to do the killing. He said that Philo and his friend were to gas Ms O'Donohoe in her home and carry her into a van. They would then bring her to Howth or Bray and throw her over a cliff to make her death look like an accident.
She said Mr O'Donohoe told her that Philo went into Mr O'Donohoe's home and knew he could proceed with the murder that day because he could hear snoring upstairs and knew that Mr O'Donohoe's two children were with him.
Mr Harnett suggested that the idea of a hired assassin tip-toeing around Mr O'Donohoe's home like Santa Claus was a "completely ludicrous story".
Ms O'Connell replied that she now knew Mr O'Donohoe's story was nonsense.
The trial continues.