Bernard McGrath disappeared in March or April 1987. He was a father of four and lived in Coole, a village in Co Westmeath, a few miles west of Castlepollard. In 1993 his remains were found. All that was left was bones, many of them charred.

Bernard McGrath was buried in Castlepollard on 28 June 1998, five years after his remains were found. The burial involved a bucket half full of bones. Ten years later, his remains were exhumed in an effort to establish what may have been the cause of his death.

Last Friday, 61-year-old Vera McGrath went on trial for the murder of her husband sometime between 10 March and 18 April 1987. The former date was the last time a local garda saw Bernard McGrath alive. The latter date was the occasion of the wedding of the McGraths' daughter Veronica. Her groom on that occasion was Liverpool man, Colin Pinder. He is also accused of Bernard McGrath's murder. Vera McGrath is pleading not guilty. Colin Pinder has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but not guilty to murder. On Friday, they sat beside each other at the top of Court 10 in the Courts of Criminal Justice building while the case against them was outlined.

In 1993, after Bernard McGrath's remains were found, the gardaí investigated his disappearance. In the course of their enquiries, two officers travelled to England and interviewed Colin Pinder by appointment at a police station. He was not arrested at the time.

Then in 2007, the Serious Crime Review Team began what is known as a cold case review into the death. The following year, Pinder was once again interviewed. In February last year, Pinder met gardaí by appointment in Dublin airport, and was taken to a garda station for further interview. The following day at Dublin airport he was arrested and later charged with murder.

Vera McGrath was arrested at her home in Westmeath on 12 May last year and also charged with the crime.

The case against the pair was outlined by prosecution counsel Denis Vaughan Buckley on Friday. He told the court that the chief witness will be Veronica McGrath. The deceased man's daughter will be giving evidence against her mother and husband. Veronica is the eldest McGrath offspring and has three younger brothers, at least one of whom will also be giving evidence.

The court heard that the prosecution evidence will be that Veronica McGrath met Colin Pinder in the UK. In February 1987, the pair returned to Veronica's homeplace in Westmeath. Vera McGrath borrowed a caravan for her daughter and Pinder in which they were accommodated at the side of the family bungalow.

However, Vaughan Buckley told the court, there were ongoing rows between the McGrath parents so the young couple took the caravan and moved it to a friend's house two miles away. On the night in question, the McGrath parents visited their friends in this house. Bernard McGrath went into the house, while Vera popped in to talk to her daughter and Pinder. Veronica McGrath is expected to give evidence that her mother expressed the wish that her husband was dead, and that she encouraged Pinder to kill him.

'Assault'

Later, the McGrath parents, Veronica and Pinder walked back the two miles to the family home. Inside the house Bernard McGrath was subjected to a sustained assault with a number of weapons by his wife and Colin Pinder. The prosecuting counsel told the court that Veronica McGrath will say that she witnessed this assault.

Bernard McGrath was then buried in a shallow grave. The following day a clean-up was effected, with attention given to blood and mucus which were staining an exterior wall. Some days later, Vera McGrath went to England with her three sons and remained there for eight weeks. Veronica and Pinder stayed in Coole.

When the McGraths returned to the family home, Bernard's remains were dug up. Over a period of two to three days, the remains were burnt and bones smashed before what was left was reburied.

There will also be evidence from the state pathologist Marie Cassidy, who examined the remains. Vaughan Buckley told the court that she will say that the jawbone was fractured in a manner that would have resulted from significant blunt force trauma. Due to the condition of the remains it is not possible to say whether this trauma was applied while the man was still alive, or after death, the counsel said.

"The evidence will be that Mrs McGrath encouraged Colin Pinder to carry out this attack," Vaughan Buckley told the jury of eight men and four women.

"There is no issue but that the deceased man met his death in that place at that time," Vaughan Buckley said. "Colin Pinder accepts that he was involved in the unlawful killing but not murder." Vera McGrath is pleading not guilty to murder.

The courtroom was full for what was the start of one of the most prominent cases to be brought to trial following the establishment of the Serious Crime Review Team. The head of the team, detective superintendent Christy Mangan, was among those in attendance.

After the opening, the court heard mapping evidence from a member of the garda technical bureau. The trial was then adjourned until tomorrow, when Veronica McGrath's evidence is expected to begin. The estimated duration of the trial is three weeks, although Judge John Edwards pointed out to the jury that these estimates can often be wrong.