Trial of man accused of boat killing of wife Lu Na McKinney begins

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 of seven men and five women that when they had heard all of the evidence they would find “this was no tragic accident and you will be sure Srtephen McKinney killed his wife”.

Trial judge Madam Justice McBidge also heard that Mrs McKinney had also been “incapacitated” after taking the sleeping drug Zopiclone, obtained online by her husband Stephen, who “caused her to enter the water”.

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

The weather that night was described as good, with very little wind, and with a full moon providing good visibility.

Mr Weir said while Mr McKinney denied having anything to do with the death of his wife, when police arrived on the scene, during the four minutes it took them to dock, Mr McKinney, even on his own case, did nothing to recover his wife, a non-swimmer, from the lough.

The prosecutor further claimed in the wake of his wife’s tragic 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 tragic 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, originailly from Strabane, but who lived with his wife and children in Flaxfield, Convoy Co Donegal, now has an address in Castlerown Square, Fintona, Co Tyrone.