THE wife of the RUC officer charged with her murder was desperately unhappy in the weeks before her death, the Crown Court in Belfast was told yesterday. Mr Sandy Duff, father of Linda Torney (33), describing her as a devoted, wife and mother, said his daughter, cried her heart out half the night.
His daughter, her son John (13), and daughter Emma (10), were found shot in bed at their Cookstown home in Co Tyrone in September 1994. Constable John" Torney (40), denies their murders, claiming instead that his son ran amok, shooting his mother and sister with his police issue revolver before turning the gun on himself.
Mr Duff told the jury that a month before her murder, Linda was brought to his home in Dungannon by her husband. "She seemed upset when she arrived. She wasn't too happy. She was sobbing, crying, but she wouldn't tell me what the trouble was. She cried half the night too," he said.
Mr John Creaney QC, prosecuting, has claimed while Mrs Torney stayed at her father's home, her husband and Ms Ailsa Millar, the policewoman with whom he had become infatuated, spent the early hours in his home.
Mr Duff said the Sunday before the murders, his daughter and her husband spent the afternoon at his house, saying they seemed on "good enough" terms.