A 44-year-old man who admitted strangling his wife has been found guilty of her murder at the Central Criminal Court this morning and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Anton Mulder of Maelduin, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Corrinne Suzanne Mulder after she was found strangled in the couple's home on December 14 th2004.
Mulder, originally from South Africa, and his wife, originally from Bangor Co Down, had been experiencing difficulties and were briefly living apart at the time of her murder.
Evidence was given in court that Ms Mulder was having an affair and that the couple had violent arguments although the accused was not said to have struck his wife.
Mulder was a regional manger for the fast food chain KFC. The court heard from a South African colleague that Mulder said he was going to kill his wife and that the penal system in Ireland was unlikely to be severe.
Ms Mulder was paying a Christmas visit with some of the couple's six children when she was strangled. One of their children told the court his mother intended to leave her husband after Christmas but had not informed her husband.
The trial was disrupted by Ms Mulder's brother after an angry outburst on the first day. William Carson Pollock and his wife, Andrea, were later banned from the court after the jury foreman said Mr Pollock had made approaches to a jury member in the grounds of the court.
The jury of ten men and two women retired last night to consider their verdict and this morning handed down a guilty finding and Mulder was sentenced to life.