Judgment reserved in Stephen McKinney's appeal against conviction for murder of wife Lu Na McKinney

A man jailed for murdering his wife on a family boating trip subjected her to coercion and control behind a lying portrayal of a happy marriage, the Court of Appeal heard on Tuesday.

Prosecutors argued that the case against Stephen McKinney for killing Lu Na McKinney was overwhelmingly strong.

The 46-year-old is seeking to overturn his conviction for carrying out the murder during a holiday on Lough Erne, Co Fermanagh in April 2017.

Judgment was reserved at the end of a two-day hearing.

The body of Mrs McKinney, 35, was recovered from the water near a jetty at Devenish Island, where the couple were moored on a cruise with their two young children.

Her husband, originally from Fintona in Co Tyrone, has always denied the killing.

McKinney claimed she fell into the water while on deck to check mooring ropes, and that he tried to save her.

But in 2021 a jury at Dungannon Crown Court found him guilty of his wife’s murder after accepting the prosecution case that it was no boating accident.

McKinney, who is serving a minimum 20 years in prison, has advanced a number of grounds in an attempt to have the verdict declared unsafe.

His legal team claimed jurors were potentially prejudiced by inappropriate media coverage of a mid-trial decision.

He was wrongly exposed to the risk of unfairness by a subsequent failure to discharge the panel deciding the case, they contended.

It was also claimed that McKinney’s trial should have been stopped following the sudden death of one of one of his original barristers, and that some bad character evidence wrongly featured.

But Richard Weir KC, for the prosecution, described the trial judge’s decisions as a model in how to handle such a difficult case.

The barrister insisted that McKinney provided a completely false picture of the state of the couple’s relationship.

“He presented it as a paragon of happiness and harmony and virtue,” counsel submitted.

According to Mr Weir, transcripts of a Skype conversation revealed the truth of McKinney’s behaviour towards his wife.

“It gets across the state of this marriage as coercive and controlling, giving a lie to this being a happy marriage,” he told the three appeal judges.

McKinney, who was brought into court in handcuffs and flanked by prison guards, sat impassive throughout the hearing.

In what was a circumstantial case against him, detectives believed that he had poured large water containers on the boat over himself to make it appear he had gone into the lough after his wife.

Further issues were raised over the admissibility of expert evidence about the presence of any salt water on his clothing.

Mr Weir maintained, however, that the guilty verdict could not be regarded as potentially unsafe.

“It was an overwhelmingly strong prosecution case,” he said.

“This was an attentive jury, not one where counsel were concerned that people were falling asleep or stargazing.

“There is nothing in this that would cause this court any sense of unease.”

Reserving judgment, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan pledged: “We will give our ruling in the case as soon as possible.”

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