Lough Erne murder accused Stephen McKinney ‘was controlling and tired of his wife’

And in his opening at the start of the Dungannon Crown Court trial of Stephen McKinney, prosecuting QC Richard Weir went further and accused the 43-year-old father of two of murdering his 35-year-old wife Lu Na nearly three years ago.

Mr Weir told the jury that when they had heard all of the evidence they would find “this was no tragic accident and you will be sure Stephen McKinney killed his wife”.

The court also heard that Mrs McKinney had been “incapacitated” after taking the sleeping drug Zopiclone, obtained online by her husband.

Her body was recovered from Fermanagh’s Lower Lough Erne near Devenish Island, within 40 minutes of her husband raising the alarm in the early hours of April 13, 2017.

Mr Weir claimed in the wake of his wife’s death Mr McKinney gave conflicting accounts to police, authorities, family and friends as to how she came to be in the lough, after she had allegedly went to secure the mooring ropes on their cruiser.

Mr Weir further revealed months before her death Mrs McKinney had talked of divorcing her husband, and of taking their children back to China, something he would not have wanted.

Mr McKinney, originally from Strabane, but who lived with his wife and children in Convoy, Co Donegal, now has an address in Fintona, Co Tyrone.

Mr Weir admitted that the case against Mr McKinney was a circumstantial one, but one where the strands of evidence were sufficient, when taken together, to support their case.

The court heard details of the two emergency 999 calls made by Mr McKinney claiming his wife had “just ended up in the water”.

Initially, in the first call which was cut short, he is recorded saying his wife had fallen into the water after she’d complained the boat was moving, that they both got out to adjust the mooring ropes, and she slipped and he jumped into the water to try and help her.

When asked how she fell into the water, Mr McKinney was recorded repeating that they both got off the 29ft cruiser, but then: “I just don’t know, she just ended up in the water.”

Later he told a second operator: “I was in the water looking for her, trying to, I was trying to keep her, I was trying to keep her up. I got hold of her, but she went down and I tried to pull her back up.

“I tried to pull her back up and she went down,” he said, then added: “And she pulled me down.”

Mrs McKinney’s body, the jury heard, was pulled from the lough by a police officer using a boat hook.

The jury also heard of the effect Zopiclone, used to treat insomnia, would have had on Mrs McKinney. Her husband said he’d obtained it for her online and she’d taken some that evening.

The amount of the drug found in her system was more than the normal therapeutic dose and the effect on her was likely to have been substantial.

In conclusion Mr Weir said: “We say he is a controlling man, tired of his wife, not prepared to accept her divorcing him and all the consequences that would entail for him and their children.”

The trial, which could last for eight weeks, continues on Thursday.