A friend of the Dundalk man accused of the contract murder of his wife claimed he thought he was joking when offered up to £6,000 to kill someone.
Mr Joseph Moran (40) denies the murder of his wife, Rose (32), and plotting the August 1991 killing with his then lover Ms Anita McKeown, his wife's niece by marriage.
His trial at Belfast Crown Court heard yesterday that about a month before his wife was stabbed 37 times at their isolated home near Newry, he asked two friends if they would kill someone.
Mr Alan Quigley said he was talking to a friend when approached by Mr Moran. "We kept on chatting and talked about things and all of a sudden Joe asked us would we kill anybody and we said, yeah. I thought it was a joke at first. We just kept talking about it, the way we could do it, getting an axe or a knife." Mr Quigley claimed it was so long ago he couldn't remember who the victim was to be, but "it was to happen just down in the North". Mr Quigley said when it was suggested that an axe be used, "Joe suggested using a knife".
He also claimed Mr Moran said the killers would be paid £3,000£6,000. Mr Quigley said Mr Moran asked again: " `Would yous do it?' and we said, `yeah' - I thought it was all a joke".
He added that when he heard of Mrs Moran's murder the conversation began to prey on his conscience and about seven months later arrangements were made for him to talk to the Garda.
Cross-examined by Mr Kevin Finnegan QC, defending, Mr Quigley denied he had "concocted - fabricated" the story from an earlier conversation in which Mr Moran told him Ms McKeown had paid him £1,000 to have his wife killed.
Mr Finnegan said Mr Moran also told Mr Quigley he wanted nothing to do with it and had given the money to his wife, and Mr Quigley had "up-dated that" on hearing about a reward for the capture of Mrs Moran's killers. Mr Quigley said since the killing he has not received any reward nor does he expect to be paid.