Hi °C | Lo °C A man accused of murdering his wife told gardai he stabbed her up to three times in front of their sons but did not intend to kill her, a court heard yesterday.
David Bourke (49) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jean Gilbert, at their home at Laverna Dale, Castleknock, Co Dublin, on August 28, 2007.
He told gardai he "wanted to cause her suffering and pain" and said that after a row "all I remember is taking the knife from behind my back". The Central Criminal Court heard yesterday that Ms Gilbert (46) died of four stab wounds to the back.
Garda Karl Keane told Isobel Kennedy, prosecuting counsel, that he interviewed Mr Bourke on the day of his wife's death.
Mr Bourke told gardai that the night before his wife's death he had slept in his bedroom and his wife slept in the "box room."
He said that she had moved to the box room in June "because she announced she wanted to separate on the 15th of June and said she didn't love me anymore." Mr Bourke said that he heard his wife leave the house at 5.20am on the morning of the alleged murder.
"I heard the car start outside. I raced to the bedroom window and saw her getting into the car. She briefly looked up at me or the window, and then drove off."
Mr Bourke told the gardai he didn't know exactly where his wife was going.
"But I knew she was going to meet her boyfriend. He had come the previous day."
He said that he was "too upset to go back to bed".
Mr Bourke told Gda Keane that he got a text from his wife that morning to say that she would be home at 10am.
"I knew she'd been with her boyfriend but she told me she'd gone to get a message."
He said that his wife returned and went into the sitting-room.
"I was feeling very angry. I took a long steak knife and put it in at the back of my shirt."
He said that his daughter asked for some toast and that he put some bread in the toaster.
"I went into the sitting-room, where my wife and two sons were watching TV."
Boyfriend
Mr Bourke told gardai that he remembered "calling her a tramp".
"I asked her about a phone my son was missing and had she given it to her boyfriend who'd come over from England.
"Then all I remember is taking the knife from behind my back."
Mr Bourke told gardai that he "lunged" at his wife as she was sitting on an armchair. He said they both struggled on the floor and he stabbed her two or three times.
He said that he was "calling her names" when he stabbed her.
"My daughter came in, saying, 'Why did you kill her? What is going to happen to us now?'"
Mr Bourke said that he then put the knife on the mantlepiece and called 999.
"When I was on the phone, my daughter was giving mouth-to-mouth to my wife. I put a cushion under her head."
He said he went to the kitchen, got some tissue and brought it to his wife.
"I gave her mouth-to-mouth several times," he said.
Mr Bourke told gardai that he "felt bad and remorseful for what [he] had just done".
When asked what his intention was when he stabbed his wife, Mr Bourke said: "To cause her pain, it wasn't to kill her."
He said that when he got the knife from the kitchen he "didn't know if [he] would be able to use it."
"It was not my intention to kill her, just to cause her pain and suffering like she had caused me to suffer."
"I wanted to hurt her, yes, but not to kill her."
State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy said that there were also defence injuries to Ms Gilbert's hands. The trial continues.
Source: Irish Independent
