A book-keeper confessed he strangled his wife after taking keys to her house from his daughter's pocket, a witness said at a murder trial yesterday. Ms Debra O'Connell, an assurance agent, said Mr Paul O'Donohoe told her he wore gloves to strangle his wife and gestured with his hands to signify what he had done.
Ms O'Connell said Mr O'Donohoe initially told her he had hired a man called "Philo" to do the killing. She gave him a lift to the Glimmerman pub in Dublin.
Mr O'Donohoe came out and appeared to be pretending to be upset. He told her Philo wanted more money. She later told him she didn't believe him, and he confessed he had killed his wife.
Ms O'Connell agreed with Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, she was mistaken in her recollection of some events.
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 Christine Sullivan said she had worked with Ms O'Donohoe in Stokes Kennedy Crowley accountants. On the night Miriam's body was discovered, she heard on the radio that a woman had been killed in Mulhuddart.
Mr O'Donohoe rang her the next morning. He said Miriam was dead and he had discovered her body the previous evening while taking their two children back to her home.