A house painter bludgeoned his girlfriend to death because "she pushed the wrong button" during a drunken row about her son, a Belfast court has been told.
Mr Billy Long (33) denies murdering Ms Jean Mason (41), from Bangor, Co Down, a mother of three, in his Limestone Road home in north Belfast on March 1st, 1998.
Mr Terence Mooney QC, prosecuting, said Mr Long first stunned Ms Mason with a blow from the axe to the front of her head, and then inflicted "two devastating blows" to the back of her head, which "shattered her skull".
Mr Long's sister Gina and boyfriend, Mr Gareth Glen, told Belfast Crown Court that Mr Long, his tracksuit bottoms splattered with blood, came to their nearby home and blurted out that he had killed Ms Mason.
"It's Jean, we've had a fight - she pushed the wrong button. I hit her, she's not coming back," Mr Long allegedly told them. Police also said Mr Long confessed: "There's no point in going on, I did it, I killed her."
Later Mr Long said he remembered nothing about the attack.