A WOMAN, whose partner’s dismembered body was found in a canal, has given evidence of collapsing after his killer told her the deceased was having affair when she told him he was missing.

Eimear Dunne also told the the Central Criminal Court about a break-up text sent from somebody purporting to be him just hours earlier.

She was giving evidence this morning in the trial of Paul Wells Senior, of Barnamore Park, Finglas, who is charged with murdering her partner, Kenneth O’Brien, at the accused man’s home.

Mr Wells, 50, has admitted shooting the father-of-one dead and dismembering his body.

However, he has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 33-year-old on January 15 or 16, 2016.

He told gardai that the deceased had wanted him to murder Ms Dunne.

Ms Dunne testified that she and their son had kissed the deceased goodbye that morning before she dropped the little boy to her mother’s ahead of her day at work.

Mr O’Brien reminded her that he would be home late that night, as he was working out the country.

She told Mr Gillane that they had exchanged text messages throughout the morning, mainly concerning the cold, icy conditions, with Mr O’Brien enquiring as to whether she had got to work ok.

This continued up until about 1.30pm, after which she heard nothing, despite texting and ringing him. His phone was off, which she found unusual.

She had still heard nothing by the time she went to bed that night, but received a text message from an unknown number at 3.30am.

It read: “Lost my phone today. I’m staying in a hotel tonight. Having a drink. Talk tomorrow.”

She thought that it was not like her partner to go for a drink in his work clothes. The same number sent another message at 7.49am.

It read: “So here it is. I’m heading for the ferry today. I can’t handle being home and I want out. You care more about Zac and your family.

“I met someone else and she came to ireland yesterday. I met her today. I’m going with her. There’s no point in talking. All I’d get anyway is a row.”

The sender wrote that she would hear from him when he was sorted to organise things with their son and his ‘gear’.

It concluded: “I’ve had to spoof everyone to do this but this girl will put it right. I’ll be in touch.”

She sent a reply back immediately.

She explained: “Then, I was looking at the text message and I was saying: ‘That’s not right'”.

She continued: “Zach is spelt wrong. ZAC is not how you spell it. There’s no full stops.

“There’s no capital letter for Ireland. That’s not Ken. Ken is very particular about his text messages. ‘Gear’ is not a word Ken would use and ‘spoof’ is definitely not a word Kenneth O’Brien would use.”

Ms Dunne began calling family and Mr O’Brien’s friends, including the accused.

She said: “I asked did he know what was going on. Ken hadn’t come home.

“He said basically: ‘Look, he’s seeing someone else’.”

She said that he explained that the deceased had met someone in Australia, where he had been working until Christmas.

He said that he had been seeing her for a good while before he came home and that he hadn’t wanted to return home.

She said: “I think I collapsed on the floor.” The accused told her he’d be over in a few minutes.

The trial continues this afternoon before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of six women and six men.