The trial of a father of two accused of being a controlling man who couldn't accept his wife might divorce him and killed her, heard today (Monday) of alleged troubles within the marriage and of his wife's talk of divorce.

Dungannon Crown Court also learned while Stephen McKinney even confessed to his wife Lu Na of having an affair and showed her a video, she told a friend of meeting "her soul mate" a man called 'Kenny'.

However, while Mrs. McKinney also talked of wanting a divorce, she said she was staying in the marriage for the sake of their two children, and also allegedly said she could not afford being a single parent.

Her 44-year-old husband Stephen is accused of murdering her during a family boating holiday on Fermanagh's Lough Erne four years ago in April 2017. Originally from Strabane, but who lived with his family in Convoy, Co Donegal, and now with an address in Castletown Square, Fintona, Tyrone, McKinney denies the charge.

Evidence of troubles in the McKinney marriage were given by friends who claimed she confided in them they no longer shared the marital bed. Lu Na it was said said she often either slept with one of her children, or on a settee.

The couple had even separated for a time before returning to Ireland from China in early 2017, but that Lu Na planned to divorce Stephen because she was "fed up" with their arguing. And she was advised by a friend to seek help from Citizen's Advice.

She told the court on learning of Lu Na's death from an aunt, she contacted McKinney who said she'd "fallen in the water" and later called her to say the results of the "post mortem showed Lu Na's death was an accident".

Later still he described his efforts to save Lu Na as their children slept. He told her his wife, worried the boat was not secured, went to check on the mooring ropes that "he heard a splash and went out and jumped in but could not save her. That he was holding on to the boat with one hand while trying to grab her with his other hand ".

A Chinese restaurant owner and former boss and friend of Lu Na recounted what McKinney told his wife's grieving family of what occurred. She said she had acted as a translator for the family who'd travelled from China for her funeral.

She agreed with prosecuting QC Richard Weir in her police statement that she talked of McKinney saying "he didn't really want to tell Lu Na's mother she had taken sleeping tablets on the boat, then moments later he did so".

McKinney also allegedly told the family Lu Na refused to wear a life jacket as she felt she was not "pretty in it", before telling them of the tragedy as it unfolded. He said everything was "normal" that evening, but after retiring Lu Na woke him as she "put on warm clothes".

Mr. Weir said McKinney had "told Lu Na to wait, but she wouldn't and when he was ready he saw Lu Na trip and fall in the water. He jumped in straight after Lu Na and tried to pull her up, that he held her with one hand and his legs. That it was all his fault, that everything was his fault".

The witness also agreed the family were told Lu Na had taken a sleeping pill and that she often took a Chinese herbal drink to help her sleep, before McKinney expanded further on how he "tried to rescue Lu Na and tried to lift Lu Na on to the boat with one hand but she was quite heavy and as she stood on him, he went under the water and when he came up Lu Na went down".

He also explained because he felt "so cold he had to let Lu Na go ... it was dark above and below the water and he couldn't see anything or Lu Na because it was pitch black".

The jury also heard McKinney showed them scarring from an operation he'd had earlier that year, before telling the shocked family members, "he believed" only for the operation "he could have saved Lu Na".

Other witnesses also told the court of Lu Na's complaints about her failing marriage and she felt her selfish husband with whom she "often quarrelled .... lacked respect for her and did not care for her".

Mrs. McKinney also allegedly confided that the marriage was good in China, but not since the couple's return to Ireland, her husband "had changed and was not the same as before", that they fought a lot and he would get angry with her sometimes.

At hearing.