The Court of Criminal Appeal has rejected an appeal by a Co Donegal man against his conviction for the murder of his estranged wife, whose remains were found burnt at the back of the family home.
Gary McCrea (41), Ballybulgin, Laghy, Co Donegal, was jailed for life in November 2005 after a jury found him guilty of the murder of Dolores McCrea (39), his estranged wife and mother of four, of Ballintra, Co Donegal, some time between January 20th and January 22nd, 2004.
The three-judge appeal court, with Ms Justice Fidelma Macken presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Éamon de Valera and Mr Justice Brian McGovern, yesterday dismissed all the grounds of McCrea's appeal.
Earlier, Patrick Gageby SC, for McCrea, said the appeal was being brought on grounds including that the trial judge had erred in principle in the way he addressed, during his charge to the jury, the issue of explanations given by McCrea.
A further ground of appeal was in relation to the validity of warrants obtained by gardaí to search McCrea's property following Ms McCrea's disappearance in January 2004.
Opposing the appeal for the DPP, Paul O'Higgins SC said the trial judge had quite properly and adequately dealt with explanations given by McCrea during his charge to the jury.
The warrants complained of were properly issued on "perfectly justifiable" grounds, Mr O'Higgins added. Even if they were not, McCrea had informed gardaí conducting the search that they were "quite free to look around", he said.
Dismissing the appeal, Ms Justice Macken said the appeal court had found the judge had properly charged the jury "in a clear and understandable way" in relation to the explanations given by McCrea. It also could find no deficiency in relation to the search warrants served on him.
During the 2005 trial, the jury was told that Dolores McGroary and Gary McCrea grew up within a few miles of each other. When they married, she converted from her Catholic faith to his Protestant religion and became an enthusiastic fund-raiser for the local school and church.
McCrea, a mechanic, was furious when Dolores left the family home, the trial was told. Prior to that, gardaí had been called to the house to deal with complaints of violence. McCrea had accused his wife of sleeping with a series of men and had told his children that he would rip his wife's guts out and stab her.