Woman denies affair with murder accused

A Jamaican woman giving evidence in the trial of a Nigerian man who allegedly murdered his wife with a lump hammer has strongly denied that she or the victim’s sister were having an affair with the accused.

Sharon Facey was giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court in the trial of Goodwill Uduchukwu (aged 32) with a previous address at Royal Canal View, Royal Canal Bank, Phibsboro, Dublin, who denies murdering Natasha Gray (aged 25), a mother of two, at the same address on February 18, 2003.

Mr Blaise O’Carroll SC, defending, put it to the witness that both she and the sister of the deceased, Mrs Nicola Curtis, had had affairs with the accused.

The witness replied: “Do not insult Nicola. Why would she leave her good husband?” She said the accused was a failed asylum seeker and was not good looking.

“That’s very insulting to me and Nicola Curtis. That’s very bad,” she said. She also denied she was jealous of the victim and that the accused had been her lover in 2001.

“That was a story made up by that man and that’s it,” she said. In earlier evidence Ms Facey agreed she had told the social welfare office that the accused was the father of her child and said he had told her she would not get an apartment if she told them she was a single parent.

She agreed she had written down on a piece of paper that she had had a holiday in Ireland on August 5, 2001, when she met Mr Udechukwu, become friends with him and had an affair.

However, the witness told Mr O'Carroll: "That was what I was told to put and he finished the rest."

She said the first part of the written statement was in her handwriting but the rest had been written by the accused.

"I studied it and went to the social welfare and that was it closed. He was waiting for a victim and I came right into his hands," she said.

She described the accused as a "wicked, wicked person" and said if he had not done this to her he would have done it to someone else.

She said she had made the claim because she believed the accused was helping her to get an apartment.

At one stage during the evidence yesterday morning the judge pointed out to Mr O'Carroll: "Your client appears to be in distress."

The jury waas asked to leave after Mr Udechukwu became emotional and began to cry. Ms Facey said: "That's all pretending, I must say."

The hearing was adjourned for a brief time. During her cross-examination yesterday Ms Facey also denied that the victim’s former partner, Guy Mboze, had been angry and agitated when he visited the apartment on one occasion before Ms Gray lost her life.

Asked if Mr Mboze had a fiery character she said the only time she had seen him upset was when the accused was there.

She said the two men did not get on and she remembered two occasions on which they had had fights.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins and a jury of five men and seven women.