An unsettling light shone into couple’s life

A RARE but unsettling light into the private world of a couple’s relationship was shone yesterday as a jury in a murder trial was given an anatomy of the marriage of Brian and Siobhan Kearney.

From the initial mutual attraction between the pair through the ups and downs of a typical relationship to the pain of a marriage breakdown, few intimate details were left unexposed in the emotionless, stuffy setting of the Central Criminal Court.

Evidence about the couple’s troubled relationship especially in the weeks before Siobhan’s death in February 2006 dominated the third day of the trial of Brian Kearney who is accused of his wife’s murder. The accused was joined by his elderly parents, Feargal and Maeve, for the first time in court.

The court heard how the couple first met when Kearney was working at the Yamanouchi plant in Mulhuddart, Co Dublin, where Siobhan worked as a chef. The relationship blossomed and Siobhan moved into Kearney’s home in Ballinteer with his daughter from a previous relationship, Aoife. However, they split up after six years — a short period before the accused bought a house in Goatstown.

In the five years before they got back together, Kearney said he had no other long-term relationship and the couple had remained good friends.

The couple’s happy reunion was short-lived as Siobhan was “devastated” when she suffered a miscarriage. However, she became pregnant again and their son, Daniel, was born in July 2002, six months after their wedding. An idyllic picture was painted of the house they bought on the Spanish island of Mallorca for €2.2m, which they converted into a hotel. They also built an adjoining property onto their Goatstown home.

However, the court heard in the weekend before her death Siobhan believed the marriage had irretrievably broken down and she hoped any separation could be achieved amicably. In particular, Siobhan took exception to Kearney’s decision to rent the property adjoining their home in Goatstown as she had hoped to live there with Daniel.

The jury heard when Kearney was quizzed by gardaí about the dispute over the decision to let the house, he replied: “It was not a life or death matter.”