The Dungannon Crown Court jury in the trial of Stephen McKinney accused of murdering his wife Lu Na during a family boating holiday have begun to hear final submissions in the case which first opened at the end of April.

So far the jury of eight men and four women have heard differing versions surrounding the events at the Devenish Island jetty that fateful night four years ago before police recovered the lifeless body of 35-year-old Lu Na from Lower Lough Erne.

The prosecution claim her 44-year-old husband was a controlling man who, fearing she might divorce him and take their children back to China, "caused her to be in the water", that "he killed his wife" and that Lu Na's death in the early hours of April 13, 2017 was "no tragic boating accident".

Although McKinney chose as his right not to give direct evidence, in police interviews he maintained while he did everything to save Lu Na after she disappeared "into blackness" off the back of the hire cruiser it may not have been enough, and he blames himself for her death, something he will have to live with.

Today (Thursday) trial judge Madam Justice McBride told the jury the stage had now been reached for prosecutor Richard Weir QC to make his closing speech on behalf of the Crown.

Once he has completed his submissions Martin O'Rourke QC for the defence, will address the jury one last time.

This is the second time the 44-year-old originally from Strabane, has been on trial for the murder which he has always denied. His first trial last year had to be aborted and the then jury dismissed due to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time of her death the family were on holiday as treat for the children, and to celebrate the couple's up and coming 14 wedding anniversary.

McKinney was arrested after leaving the family home in Convoy in County Donegal while on a shopping expedition to a Border supermarket on the outskirts of Londonderry in November of that year. Since then he has been living in Fintona in Co Tyrone.