Court rejects murder appeal
The Court of Criminal Appeal has today rejected an appeal brought by Co Donegal man against his conviction for the murder of his estranged wife, whose remains he then burnt at the back of the family home.
In November 2005 Gary McCrea (aged 41), of Ballybulgin, Laghy, Co Donegal, was jailed after a jury found him guilty of the murder of his wife and the mother of his four children, Dolores McCrea (aged 39), of Ballintra, Co Donegal, on a date unknown between January 20 and January 22, 2004.
Following a three-week trial, at the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Michael Hanna imposed the mandatory life sentence on McCrea, who had denied the charge.
Today the three judge CCA of Ms Justice Fidelma Macken presiding, sitting with Mr Justice Eamonn De Valera, and Mr Justice Brian McGovern rejected all grounds of McCrea's appeal.
Moving the application Counsel for McCrea, Mr Patrick Gageby SC, said that the appeal against the conviction was being brought on grounds that the trial judge had erred in principle in the way he addressed the issue of explanations given by McCrea during his charge to the jury.
Mr Gageby said that a further ground of appeal was in relation to the validity of warrants obtained by gardaí to search MrCrea's property following Delores McCrea's disappearance in January 2004.
In opposing the appeal, counsel for the DPP Mr Paul O'Higgins SC said that the trial judge had quite properly and adequately dealt with explanations given by McCrea during his charge to the jury.
Counsel added that the warrants were properly issued, because there had been "perfectly justifiable" grounds. Even if they were not, counsel added, McCrea had informed the gardaí conducting the search that they "had no call to get them", and were "quite free to look around".
In dismissing the appeal Ms Justice Fidelma Macken said that the court had found that the judge had properly charged the jury "in a clear and understandable way", in relation to the explanations given by the accused.
In addition, the judge said that the court could not find any deficiency in relation to the search warrants served on McCrea.
During the 2005 trial the jury was told that Dolores McGroary and Gary McCrea grew up within a few miles of each other.
When they married, she converted from her own Catholic faith to his Protestant religion and became an enthusiastic fundraiser for the local school and church.
The couple had four daughters, who range in age from early 20s to early teens. McCrea, a mechanic, was furious when Dolores left the family home in Ballybogan, Co Donegal, in April 2003.
Prior to that the Gardai had been called to the house to deal with complaints of violence.
McCrea had accused Dolores of sleeping with a series of men and had told his children that he would “rip his wife's guts out” and stab her.
In January 2004 Dolores returned to the family home to discuss the sale of her car. Shortly before Dolores was due at his house to discuss the arrangement, he bought 20 quad tyres and 45 litres of diesel.
Dolores left home to play darts in Donegal town. As arranged with her separated husband, she called on him on the way to discuss the sale of her car.
A visiting neighbour departed as she arrived, the last person other than her former husband to see her alive.
The smoke and flames were visible for miles around, but nobody suspected anything unusual. Their eldest daughter, Sharon, told her aunt and grandmother that she was worried. Her mother had not returned from the darts tournament.
Gardaí investigating the matter found burning human bones in the embers of the fire.
During a search of the family home, gardaí found video tapes of programmes that included a scene where the killer attempts to dispose of the body by burning.
There was also a recording of a BBC documentary, 'Trail of Guilt', about the successful police hunt for murderer and serial rapist Michael Hardacre who terrorised women in the UK.
Garda and technical experts carried out a "finger tip" investigation of the scene.
A forensic dental surgeon told the trial that heavily carbonised teeth recovered from the remains of the fire at the McCrea home were consistent with the dental records of Dolores McCrea.
Her body was so badly burnt that a cause of death could not be determined.
