A Co Roscommon farmer who awaits sentence for raping a neighbour in his house was charged in 1975 with murdering his first wife, the Central Criminal Court heard. The 51-year-old father's guilty plea to manslaughter was then accepted and he was given a two-year suspended sentence.
Mr Justice Fergus Flood described the man's July 30th, 1995, rape of a married woman whom he offered a lift as "an extremely mean, vicious assault" when he adjourned sentence to October 29th,
He was convicted by a jury last April after a four-day trial and has been in custody since.