Wife, lover get 15-year minimum for killing husband

Julie McGinley and her lover Michael Monaghan must spend at least 15 years in jail for the gruesome murder of the former's husband…

Julie McGinley and her lover Michael Monaghan must spend at least 15 years in jail for the gruesome murder of the former's husband in August 2000.

The mother of two her lover were jailed for life last December for battering Gerry McGinley (34) to death at the family home in Co Fermanagh.

Today they were told at Belfast Crown Court today that they must serve a 15-year minimum sentence.

It took the jury less than three hours at the end of the 13-week trial to convict the pair of killing Mr McGinley in the bedroom of his Derryraghan home in Co, Ballinamallard in Co Fermanagh, on August 13th, 2000.

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After the murder his body was stripped, then dumped to rot in a Co Leitrim wood across the border where the skeletal remains were found by a schoolgirl 10 months later.

Ms McGinley, who moved home to Windmill Drive, Enniskillen, stood to collect over £300,000 (€469,124) in insurance premiums from her husband's death. The couple ran a furniture business in partnership with Monahgan.

Monaghan, originally from Grange, Co Sligo, but living in a flat in Ann Street, Enniskillen, was spotted making love to Ms McGinley in the car park of the Tempo Road business estate on the outskirts of the town where their furniture outlet was based.

Although Ms McGinley never admitted having an affair with Monaghan, his DNA profile was taken from semen stains found on her mattress.

At the time of her husband's disappearance in August 2000, Ms McGinley claimed her husband had left with a man driving a Republic of Ireland-registered car after packing a few clothes and taking £1,000 from their bedroom.

She also claimed that her husband may have gone to kill himself as he was suffering depression and had attempted suicide in the past.

The prosecution had alleged that Mr McGinley was murdered because he was "an impediment" to the love affair between McGinley and Monaghan.