Ms Geraldine Diver was "more likely" to have been strangled by hand than with the tie found wrapped tightly at least twice around her neck, a jury heard yesterday.
But during the murder trial in the Central Criminal Court the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, told Mr Barry White SC, defending, that he could never exclude the possibility that "no great pressure was applied to the neck".
Mrs Diver's husband, Mr John Diver (60), denies the murder of his then 42-year-old wife, who was found strangled in her car outside Buckley's builders' providers on Robinhood Road, Clondalkin, at around 10:40 p.m. on December 2nd, 1996. She and Mr Diver had lived with their two children at Kilnamanagh Road, Walkinstown, Dublin.
The jury heard that Mrs Diver left the Coombe Women's Hospital, where she worked as an admissions clerk, between 9:20 and 9:25 on the night she was killed. Ms Enda Moran, a telephonist at the hospital, told the court: "I reckon it was 20, 25 past nine, maybe nearer 25 past."
Mr Edward Comyn SC, prosecuting, asked Dr Harbison if it was not the case that while at first the man's tie was considered to be the cause of strangulation, on further examination it was possible that the cause was manual strangulation.
"I would go a bit further than possible, my lord," Dr Harbison said. "It's more likely."
The trial continues before Mr Justice Smith, with a jury of 11 men and one woman.