A murder trial has heard that a woman accused of murder told gardaí she saw her husband being killed, that she hit him herself, and she helped to bury him in a shallow grave.
Vera McGrath and her former son in law, Colin Pinder both deny the murder of Brian McGrath in 1987.
The court has been hearing statements given by Vera McGrath to gardaí in November 1993.
On the night Brian McGrath was killed, she said she told her daughter, Veronica, and Colin Pinder that her husband was still fighting with her and she wished he was dead.
She said Colin Pinder said he had the very thing and took a silver bar out of a wardrobe.
Mrs McGrath said Mr Pinder told them they would all have to agree on it and they all shook hands on this.
Mrs McGrath said Colin Pinder hit Brian McGrath outside the McGrath house at Lower Coole.
She said he kept repeating that she would have to hit him as well. She said she hit her husband as he was lying on the ground.
Mrs McGrath said she saw Colin Pinder hit her husband with a slash-hook a number of times and then told her 'it's all over'.
She said he told Veronica he did it for her because he loved her.
Mrs McGrath said the three of them dragged her husband to the top of the field and buried him in a shallow grave.
Some weeks later she said they burned his body. Mrs McGrath said she and Veronica helped Colin Pinder by banging on the body with shovels.
On 19 November 1993, the court heard, Vera McGrath went back to the house at Coole and pointed out various locations to investigating gardaí.
After being cautioned she said: 'It doesn't matter now, anyhow.'
During her statement, she described her husband running down a lane to a ditch and said to gardai 'didn't he nearly make it?'
The trial continues tomorrow.
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