Husband of Meg Walsh admits being a 'wife-beater'

A Waterford man accused of murdering his wife told gardaí he would not have brought the man she kissed back to the house the night before she disappeared a Central Criminal Court jury has heard.

Bus driver, Mr O’Brien (41) with an address in Ballinakill Downs, Co Waterford denies murdering Meg Walsh (35) on a date between October 1 2006 and October 15, 2006.

Detective Garda Declan O’Brien told Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, that when Mr O’Brien was asked what he would do differently about the weekend his wife disappeared he replied “I would come home at a reasonable hour without Owen Walsh.”

Last week the jury heard that Meg kissed Mr Walsh after a night drinking in their local, the bar of the Woodlands Hotel.

Mr O’Brien admitted to gardaí that he was a “wife beater” in an interview read to the jury. The court has heard that he assaulted Meg on September 20, less than two weeks before she disappeared.

But he told gardaí “I tell her a couple of times every day I love her.”

Mr O’Brien denied taking Meg’s wedding ring and engagement ring, which were found in an ashtray in the house. Det Gda O’Brien disagreed with defence counsel Mr Paddy McCarthy’s suggestion that the rings were consistent with “somebody leaving them behind when she was going out on Sunday night.” “Meg Walsh would never go out anywhere without her jewellery.”

Mr O’Brien denied that he was considering jumping into the River Suir on Sunday October 1 when he is shown on CCTV footage staring into the water not far from where his wife’s body was found two weeks later.

He told gardaí he didn’t think about where her body would wash up after the high tide that weekend because he had not dumped her body. However he told gardai that he knew “bodies float after 7 to ten days.”

Mr O’Brien told gardaí he had taken Meg’s keys and spare keys away from her the night of the argument on September 20. “On the Wednesday might Meg was hysterical and trying to get out of the front door. I took her keys off her. She had a spare key to the front door as well.” Mr O’Brien said he kept both sets of keys in his pockets over night but gave them back to her the following day.

He said that Meg must have put her main keys back in the pint jug they kept spare keys in. Mr O’Brien gave gardaí a set of keys including the key identified by experts as the main key to Meg’s Mitsubishi Charisma after her disappearance. He said that he though Meg had two car keys, both with a remote control fob.

The jury also heard from scenes of crime examiner Detective Garda Brian Barry, who told prosecuting counsel Mr Dominic McGinn that blood stains were found in the boot of Meg’s car as well as on the driver’s seat, the outside of the door pillar on the driver’s side and the back bumper on the driver’s side.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Barry White and the jury of seven men and five women.