A Dublin civil servant, accused of murdering her husband has told the Central Criminal Court that he first stuck her violently two weeks before their wedding.
Dolores O'Neill (50) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 46-year-old Declan O'Neill on or about July 22nd, 2002 at their home in Coolamber Park, Knocklyon in Dublin.
On the fourth day of the trial today, she told the court he also assaulted her on their honeymoon.
"I suppose it was an excuse to be drinking during the day. He had me over the balcony with his hand around my throat," she said.
By the end of the marriage, she said her husband would strike out for "the least thing". He was also violent with her older son, she said, almost breaking his arm when he stepped in to protect his mother.
Ms O'Neill said the family's money problems were down to her husband's drinking.
She told Mr Felix McEnroy SC, defending, that there was tension over the mortgage and there were times when the ESB and phone had been cut off. The defendant recounted tearfully one occasion where a cheque she wrote in the local supermarket bounced.
Ms O'Neill was emotional as she recounted the final weeks and hours of her husband's life. She explained that he had become so violent, she had begun to make up stories to explain her injuries. She recalled one occasion when he punched her, she did not know her nose was bleeding until later when her son told her.
Mr O'Neill moved out of the family home a few months before he died, moving in with a woman he described as a "dominatrix". However, he later moved back into the family home, the court heard.
Ms O'Neill told the court that on the night her husband died she went into his room to get some laundry
She said he jumped up and started shouting at her and calling her a "f***ing bitch". She said he pushed her so the arch of her back was against a table and then, clasping his hand around her throat, forced her head back against the wall behind it. She said she couldn't control her head as he banged it against the wall and she could feel her throat closing in.
He was shouting and spitting in her face, she said, and when she tried to push him off, he threatened to give her another black eye to match the first. She eventually managed to push him off, and as he landed on the bed and she lost her balance, she said "I just saw the hammer and picked it up....Jesus, oh God, Jesus."
Ms O'Neill told the court she did not remember much about what happened after that, and when cross-examined by Mr Roger Sweetman SC, prosecuting, she said she could not remember anything about the knife, later found at the scene.
However, she did not deny using it. Yesterday, the former State Pathologist, Professor John Harbison, testified that Declan O'Neill died as a result of multiple hammer blows to the head, but had also received more than 20 knife wounds to the neck.
Mr Justice Paul Carney will conclude his charge to the jury of six men and six women on Monday before they retire to consider their verdict.