Murder accused 'wanted to cause wife pain'

A man accused of murdering his wife in Dublin in August 2007 told gardaí that he did not intend to kill her but “wanted to cause her suffering and pain,” the Central Criminal Court has heard.

The court also has also heard that Jean Gilbert (aged 46) died of four stab wounds to the back.

David Bourke (aged 49) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Gilbert at their home at Laverna Dale, Castleknock, Co. Dublin on August 28, 2007.

Gda Karl Keane told Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, that he interviewed Mr Bourke on the day of his wife’s death.

Mr Bourke told gardaí that the night before his wife’s death he slept in his bedroom and that his wife slept in the “box room.”

He said that his wife had moved to the box room in June “because she announced she wanted to separate on the 15th of June and said she didn’t love me anymore.”

Mr Bourke said that he heard his wife leave the house at 5.20a.m. the morning of the alleged murder.

“I heard the car start outside. I raced to the bedroom window and saw her getting into the car. She briefly looked up at me or the window and then drove off.”

Mr Bourke told the gardaí that he didn’t know exactly where his wife was going. “But I knew she was going to meet her boyfriend. He had come the previous day.” He said that he was “too upset to go back to bed.”

Mr Bourke told Gda Keane that he got a text from his wife that morning to say that she would be home at 10a.m. “I knew she’d been with her boyfriend but she told me she’d gone to get a message.”

He said that his wife returned and went into the sitting-room. "I was feeling very angry. I took a long steak knife and put it in at the back of my shirt.”

He said that his daughter asked for some toast and that he put some bread in the toaster.

“I went into the sitting-room where my wife and two sons were watching TV.”

Mr Bourke told gardaí that he remembered “calling her a tramp.”

“I asked her about a phone my son was missing and had she given it to her boyfriend who’d come over from England.

“Then all I remember is taking the knife from behind my back.”

Mr Bourke told gardaí that he “lunged” at his wife as she was sitting on an arm-chair. He said that they both struggled on the floor and that he stabbed her two or three times.

He said that he was “calling her names” when he stabbed her.

“My daughter came in, saying, ‘Why did you kill her? What is going to happen to us now?’”

Mr Bourke said that he then put the knife on the mantelpiece and called 999.

“When I was on the phone, my daughter was giving mouth-to-mouth to my wife. I put a cushion under her head to support her.”

He said that he went to the kitchen, got some tissue and brought it to his wife.

“I gave her mouth to mouth several times,” he said. Mr Bourke told the gardaí that he “felt bad and remorseful for what [he] had just done.”

When asked what his intention was when he stabbed his wife, Mr Bourke said: “To cause her pain, it wasn’t to kill her.”

He said that when he got the knife from the kitchen he “didn’t know if [he] would be able to use it.”

“It was not my intention to kill her, just to cause her pain and suffering like she had caused me to suffer.”

“I wanted to hurt her, yes, but not to kill her.”

Mr Bourke told the gardaí that he knew his wife had a boyfriend since June 15, 2007, when she told him “she wanted to separate.”

He said that after he had read letters that his wife had received from his boyfriend he felt “ sad, hurt, betrayed.”

Mr Bourke told gardaí that he and Ms Gilbert had been married for thirteen years.

He said that Ms Gilbert had lived in the house at Laverna Dale since 1990 and that he moved into the house in 1993 when a job became available in Dublin.

The court also heard that Mr Bourke told gardai: “I would just like to say if this is going to be used in court how deeply remorseful I am.”

He said it was “probably hard for her family to believe I loved her.”

He also said that he was “sorry for the suffering and pain” he caused his children.

State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy told the court that Ms Gilbert died due to four stab wounds to the back.

She said that there were also defence injuries to Ms Gilbert’s hands, “some caused by grasping the blade, confirming she struggled with her attacker.”

Earlier, Robert Gilbert, brother of the deceased woman, told the court that Mr Bourke and his sister had been married for twelve years.

He said that until June 2007 he was not aware of any problems in their marital relationship.

He said that Mr Bourke went to his – the Gilberts’ - parents’ house at 7.45a.m. on June 19 that year.

Mr Gilbert said that he went to the house and spoke with Mr Bourke and that Mr Bourke said that his wife had told him a few days beforehand that she wanted to separate.

Mr Bourke told Mr Gilbert that his wife had told him this the previous Friday in the pub.

Ms Gilbert had also told her husband about a person living in England who she had been writing to.

Mr Gilbert told that court that in the first quarter of 2007 his sister Jean had started contact with a man in England.

He said that his family had a meeting the day after Mr Bourke called to the house and that he kept in regular contact with his sister thereafter.

The trial continues.