John Diver found not guilty of wife's murder

A man accused of killing his wife 10 years ago has been found not guilty of her murder at the Central Criminal Court toady.

John Diver (aged 65), a retired porter at the Coombe Women’s Hospital, Kilnamanagh Road, Walkinstown, Dublin was acquitted of murdering of his wife Geraldine, then aged 42, at Robinhood Road, Clondalkin on December 2nd 1996.

Ms Diver, a mother of two children two who also worked at the Coombe Women’s Hospital, was found with a tie around her neck in the front seat of her car outside a builder’s providers around 10.40pm on December 2.

In 2000 her husband of 18 years John Diver was convicted of her murder, but that conviction was overturned last year following a decision by the Supreme Court.

At the Court today, the jury of six men and five women returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty. The jury commenced deliberating on Tuesday afternoon, but spent the night in a hotel after they failed to come up with a verdict.

On the tenth day of the trial, their decision was delivered to the court shortly before lunchtime today.

They had been deliberating for a total of three hours and 35 minutes.

John Diver said "thank you" when the decision was read out.

The Divers' two children Laura (aged 23) and Simon (aged 19) sat beside their father during the proceedings.

All shed tears and embraced when the not guilty verdict was read to the court.

Earlier this morning deliberations had to be suspended because one of the jurors took ill during the early hours of the morning.

That juror required hospital treatment, and was subsequently discharged from his duties by the presiding Judge, Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan.

The trial came after the Supreme Court quashed Mr Diver's previous conviction of murdering his wife, because gardaí had failed to comply with the rules and regulations governing the treatment of people in custody.

After the verdict was read out the judge thanked them for their efforts.

Following today’s verdict one of the senior gardaí in involved in what was a lengthy investigation, inspector Michael Fitzpatrick, said that the case was now closed, and that nobody else was being sought in relation to the death of Geraldine Diver.

Neither Simon nor Laura Diver nor their uncle Edward Diver had any comment to make.

Geraldine Diver was an only child, whose parents are deceased.

An autopsy carried out by the former State Pathologist Professor John Harbison said that she had died as a result of asphyxia due to strangulation by ligature.

However given the nature of her injuries, manual strangulation could not be ruled out.

A number of friends and colleagues of Geraldine’s, who attended the bulk of this retrial, left the court shortly after the verdict was read out.

Evidence was given that she who had been having an affair with a man 14 years her junior, Ray Roche, whom she was "besotted" with.

Prior to her death, the court heard that she was planning to leave her husband and have a baby with Mr Roche.