Alleged murder victim had rekindled love affair, trial hears

A murder trial at the Central Criminal Court has heard that an affair between the victim and her lover was rekindled four months before her death.

The court also heard that the accused man, her husband, sent a text to a work colleague the night before his wife’s alleged murder, saying: “I had to get out of the house or I would have just killed her.”

David Bourke (aged 49) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jean Gilbert (aged 46) at their home at Laverna Dale, Castleknock, Co. Dublin on August 28, 2007.

The court has previously heard that Ms Gilbert was stabbed four times in the back and that Mr Bourke told gardaí he stabbed her but did not intend to kill her.

Today, a statement given by Robert Campion to gardaí after the alleged murder was read out to the court.

Mr Campion said that he met Ms Gilbert in 1986 in Japan on a Buddhist trip.

He said that they had a relationship for a year and a half after the trip. Ms Gilbert would visit him in London and he would visit her in Dublin.

The court heard that they then lost contact until 1988 when Ms Gilbert wrote to Mr Campion, asking him to marry her.

“I got cold feet because I was a professional musician,” he said.

During the 1990s, Mr Campion heard “through the grapevine” that Ms Gilbert had married.

“I presumed she was happy,” he said.

The court has previously heard that Ms Gilbert married the accused man, Mr Bourke, in 1994.

Mr Campion decided to write to Ms Gilbert again in April 2007

He said that she responded and that he wrote another letter, “testing the waters to see if she still had feelings”.

He said that this contact then “advanced to text messages”.

The court heard that Ms Gilbert went on a Buddhist trip to France in July 2007 and, after the trip, stayed with Mr Campion in Southampton for four to five nights.

Mr Campion said that Ms Gilbert visited him again in Southampton on August 17 for a week.

“I handed in my notice, gave up my flat and planned to return to Ireland with Jean,” he said.

The jury was told that Mr Campion and Ms Gilbert got the ferry from Holyhead on Sunday, August 26 and that Mr Campion booked into the Travelodge Hotel in Castleknock.

Mr Campion said that he met Ms Gilbert the following day.

Mr Bourke texted his wife to say that he was “going to counselling for the children” and Ms Gilbert returned home.

The court has previously heard that Mr Bourke told gardaí he “attended child counselling to help the children with the separation”.

Mr Campion said that he went to look for a flat and a job that Monday and that Ms Gilbert met him that night and they went for a drink, then to the hotel.

Ms Gilbert received a text from Mr Bourke, saying: “Lies, lies, lies, you said you were going to visit your mother.”

Mr Campion said that Ms Gilbert left the Travelodge, then returned at 5.30a.m. and they had sex.

He said that Mr Bourke texted his wife once again, this time saying: “You’re ruining my holiday.”

Ms Gilbert returned home later that morning.

Mr Campion said that he tried to phone her later that day but got no reply. He said that he was worried and went to Laverna Dale and spoke to the gardaí who were there.

Mr Campion told gardaí that Mr Bourke and Ms Gilbert’s children were not going to live with him and Ms Gilbert but that Mr Bourke “would mind the kids full-time”.

Mr Bourke and Ms Gilbert had three children together.

Earlier, Colin Smith SC, defending, read a letter written by Mr Campion to Ms Gilbert, dated May 30, 2007.

In the letter, Mr Campion wrote: “My body is aching and throbbing... and not just in lust but that is plentiful to be sure.

“I want to be with you spiritually, not just physically.

“I want to sense you... grow old with you, caress you gently, to make you a cup of tea, to hold your hand... to always make you feel safe, to stroke your spine.

“I trust, love and respect you.”

Mr Campion wrote that he was half-Italian.

He also wrote: “Yes, I would love to have children with you but this is one thing I cannot change.

“The most important thing is to establish a life together. This has to be handled with care because children are involved.”

The letter went on: “Jean, I mean it, you can come here to me whenever you like.

“I’ve always said that not marrying you was the biggest mistake of my life.

“I would be fully honoured in the future if you could be my wife.”

The court also heard of a text message Mr Bourke sent to work colleague Geraldine Brereton the evening before his wife’s alleged murder.

The text stated: “Hi Ger. She arrived back just as I was leaving to collect [my daughter].

“Seems he came back with her. There was a smell of tobacco, B.O. and two dirty dinner plates.

“Things got worse. We had a massive row. I told her there would be fisticuffs if he turned up in the house while I was there.

“I just hate her.

“I had to get out of the house or I would have killed her. I was that angry.”

The court heard that Mr Bourke was working with Hibernian Life as an insurance administrator at the time of his wife’s alleged murder.

He told gardaí that when his wife told him she was leaving him, he had to take time off work “because of stress”.

He also told gardaí that his wife’s relationship with their three children was “not quite as strong” as his.

Mr Bourke said that his wife told him on June 15 that he had one month to leave the house.

“I had no intention to leave the house,” he said.

“The thought of seeing her with another man sent me into a rage.”

The court has previously heard that Ms Gilbert was stabbed four times in the back.

Mr Bourke told gardaí that it was “quite a horrible attack”.

“I wasn’t in my right mind,” he said.

Asked when he had made the “final decision” to use the knife, Mr Bourke said: “When standing in the sitting-room I made the final decision.”

He was asked when he had made the initial decision and replied: “I thought about it in the morning when I was watching TV and thought about it in the shower but hadn’t made up my mind.”

He said that he did not expect his wife to die.

“I tried to give her the kiss of life a number of times,” he said.

Dr Hassan Albayyari told the court that Mr Bourke was his patient since January 2001.

He said that he prescribed Mr Bourke with anti-depressants and sleeping-tablets in July of that year.

The trial continues.