Murder accused didn't hit his wife, court hears

The trial of a South African man accused of murdering his Irish born wife has heard the couple’s children that they never saw their father strike their mother.

Anton Mulder (aged 44) of Maelduin, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath pleaded not guilty to the murder, but guilty to the manslaughter of his wife Colleen Suzanne Mulder.

She was found dead in the bedroom of their house at the same address on December 17, 2004.

At the Central Criminal Court today Anton and Colleen Mulder’s children said in their evidence that they never saw their father hit their mother, despite the fact the relationship was not good.

In statement given by Christopher Mulder (aged 19), the couple’s second eldest son, he admitted that he had never seen his father hit his mother.

The witness was not in court, however a statement that he gave to the gardaí, was read into evidence.

He said that Anton Mulder would hit inanimate objects when he lost his temper, but not his wife.

In late 2004 Anton Mulder told him that he had caught another man, Johan De Waal, hugging Colleen, and that they would not be seeing him again.

After his mother went to stay in Bangor, in mid November of 2004, Anton said to his son that he would ring Colleen everyday, because “he wanted her to come back".

He claimed that when his mother returned to Co Meath that December, she told them that she was leaving her husband after the Christmas period.

She had not told Anton of her plan.

One of the couple’s daughters, who gave her evidence via a video link, said in response to defence counsel Mr. Gerard Clarke SC that her parents fought all the time.

She did not see her mother on December 17, as she got up that morning and went to school.

Under cross-examination from defence counsel Mr. Roddy O’Hanlon SC the girl admitted that around Halloween of 2004 she saw her mother slap her father a few times, after they had rowed.