Police made frantic efforts to save woman

Stephen McKinney, from Strabane, is accused of drowning his wife at Devenish Island on a date between April 11 and 14, 2017.

The 43-year-old strenuously denies the charge and claims she slipped off the boat in a tragic accident when going to check the mooring ropes. The couple were on a boating holiday with their two children.

Today, the fifth day of the trial, the jury at Dungannon Crown heard the first police officer on the scene describe his frantic attempts to save Mrs McKinney’s life after she was taken from the water.

He told the jury of seven men and five women that when he arrived at the island by police boat along with another constable, the defendant was on the hired cruiser wrapped in a red blanket and appeared to be using a phone.

He said, “It was a moonlit night with a few clouds, the water was very calm, there was no wind about, no rain. It was a good night.”

The police witness said when he boarded the McKinney’s boat ‘Noble Cadet’ he stretched to reach Mrs McKinney in the water but was a foot short. He made use of a ‘boat hook’ to take her from the water.

On reaching the hired boat, he recalled, “I saw a black object in the water very close to the rear of the hire boat.”

He stated “the visibility of the black object was very good, I could see it clearly.”

Under cross examination the constable confirmed that he could not be sure that the black object he had seen in the water was a body until it had been recovered.

The officer said Mrs McKinney was dressed in grey pyjamas and a ‘puffed up style jacket.’

He described giving her CPR but she showed no sign of life. The officer also said the children were told there had been an “accident but they weren’t told everything”.

He said McKinney initially declined a suggestion that he go to hospital in case of the risk of ‘hypothermia and shock’, but soon after decided to go to hospital.

The PSNI officer stated, “The interaction with Mr McKinney was in so far as getting him to hospital. After he agreed to go to hospital, I had no further interaction with Mr McKinney.”

He added that there were two life-jackets on the boat which were worn by the children.

The other police officer who arrived at the scene said McKinney seemed very calm but was was pacing back and forth.

The court heard that in the second police officer’s statement during the days after the incident he stated the defendant could have been suffering from shock and paced back and firth to the cabin

He told the jury McKinney kept repeating, “Where is Luna? Where is Luna?”

At that stage she had been been transferred to an ambulance.

The trial continues.