TRIAL judge Madam Justice McBride, in the case of Strabane man Stephen McKinney – who denies murdering his wife, Lu Na, during a County Fermanagh boating holiday – has begun outlining to jurors their responsibility before coming to any verdict.

Her outline of the legal principles involved, and a review of the evidence given during the 12-week Dungannon Crown Court trial, comes after prosecution and defence counsel completed their final submissions.

Madam Justice McBride told the jurors they had to decide the case in the absence of any sympathy or prejudice they may have, and to review all the evidence regardless of any views expressed by her or either counsel.

She told the jury of eight men and four women it was for them to “decide what actually happened".

Mr. McKinney, 44, of Castletown Square, Fintona, County Tyrone, denies murdering his 35-year-old wife, Lu Na, whose body was pulled from Lower Lough Erne at Devenish Island in the early hours of April 13, 2017.

The trial heard the couple and their two children had moored their hire cruiser at the west jetty the previous evening at the start of a two-day surprise boat trip for the children and an early celebration of the McKinney's up and coming 14th wedding anniversary.

Today, Monday, July 19, defence QC Martin O'Rourke concluded his submissions by telling the jury that if there was a realistic possibility her death was an accident, the only proper verdict is not guilty.

Mr. O’Rourke said the 999 calls for help provided the window through which the jury could actually examine the case, and when properly analysed, they did not support the prosecution's circumstantial case, and indeed, supported Mr. McKinney's defence.

He maintained the calls did not show Mrs. McKinney died as the result of a deliberate act by her husband, or that he murdered her as part of a "pre-planned drowning", and said there was nothing in the emergency calls which would exclude the reasonable possibility that Mrs. McKinney died as the result of an accident.

If there is that possibility, then the prosecution case fails, and the only proper verdict is one of not guilty, said Mr. O'Rourke.

Last week, the prosecution described Mr. McKinney as a controlling, manipulative, coercive man who was determined to end his marriage on his terms, and that he had difficulty in keeping his story straight.

Prosecution QC Richard Weir had also claimed the 999 calls, and what Mr. McKinney subsequently told those who came to his aid, and later in hospital, were all “a con”.

Counsel further argued there were material differences in his accounts of what had occurred.

Once Madam Justice McBride concludes her submissions to the jury, they will be asked to retire to consider their verdict in the case.