A family man who took his wife's life did so following the most "callous and dreadful act of provocation", a court heard today.
David Bourke (49) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife Jean Gilbert (46) at the family home in Laverna Dale, Castleknock, Co Dublin, on August 28th, 2007.
Mr Bourke, an insurance assessor with Hibernian Aviva, has admitted that he stabbed his wife to death, but maintains he did so under severe provocation because she was going to leave him for another man.
Tonight, the jury of seven men and five women at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, were sent home until Monday morning by Mr Justice Barry White after more than four hours of deliberations. He told them he would accept a majority verdict in the case.
The judge said there was only two possible outcomes given that the accused had already admitted that he killed his wife. Either Mr Bourke was guilty of murder or he was not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.
He told them the “crucial issue” was whether Mr Bourke had acted in a “cold and calculated manner” in killing his wife or was he so provoked that he was subject to an “ungovernable rage or passion” and was not in control of himself.
Defence counsel Colm Smyth SC described Bourke as a “ruined man whose life is over”. He will watch his children being brought up by other people.
Mr Bourke will be “severely punished” for his crime, but he is guilty of the manslaughter and not the murder of his wife, he suggested.
Counsel for the prosecution Isobel Kennedy SC said in order for there to be a defence of provocation there had to be a total loss of self-control.
She suggested to the jury that Mr Bourke had known since June 15th that his wife was going to leave him. He had the presence of mind to copy e-mails and letters sent from Mr Campion to Ms Gilbert.
After he killed his wife, he was composed enough to tell gardaí that he had stabbed her three times and had not used the biggest knife in the drawer, she said.
Bourke was an “angry jealous man who did not want his wife to leave him. There was ample evidence of the necessary intent. It is not the actions of a man who has lost his head or his self-control,” she said.
