At 5.30am on 28 August 2007, Jean Gilbert left her home in Laverna Dale in Castleknock, Dublin 15. She went to visit a man who was staying in the Travelodge hotel on the Navan Road. They met and had sex, and most likely discussed the man's efforts at finding permanent accommodation in the city.

She returned home at around 10am. Soon after that, her husband, 49-year-old David Bourke, stabbed her in the back four times. She died at the scene. She was 46. Last week, Bourke went on trial for the murder of his wife.

Robert Campion was an old flame of Jean Gilbert's from nearly 20 years previously. They had met on a Buddhist holiday in Japan in 1988. A relationship ensued, which lasted 18 months. Campion, a professional musician, was based in London, Gilbert in Dublin. They conducted their relationship across the Irish Sea. They split up. Gilbert had wanted to get married but Campion demurred.

Within a few years, Gilbert met and married David Bourke. Their wedding took place in 1994. The couple had three children. Bourke worked as an insurance administrator in Hibernian.

A few months before August 2007, Campion came back into Jean Gilbert's life. He wrote to her to "test the waters". She wrote back. One of the letters Campion wrote was read out in the Central Criminal Court last Wednesday. It was long with sometimes explicit language and emotional yearnings. When it was read out, Bourke broke down in loud sobs. Bourke's counsel Colm Smyth character­is­ed Campion as a "classless, aging, half-Italian gigolo".

On 15 June, Gilbert asked her husband to come to a local pub where she told him she was ending the marriage. She said she didn't love him anymore. He was devastated.

Gilbert told him she wanted him out of the house within a month.

"I had no intention to leave the house," he later told the gardaí. "The thought of seeing her with another man sent me into a rage." Gilbert moved into the box room around that date.

Bourke's world fell apart. His work deteriorated and he was referred to a psychotherapist, who was so worried about his welfare she provided him with a number for the Samaritans, an organisation which specialises in counselling people considering suicide.

His doctor prescribed him with anti-depressants. A neighbour observ­ed him wandering in and out of the local park in an aimless fashion.

In July, Gilbert went on a Buddhist holiday to France and stayed with Campion on her way home. By then, he was living in Southampton. Gilbert stayed with him for four or five nights.

On 17 August, Gilbert visited Campion again in Southampton. "I handed in my notice, gave up my flat and planned to return to Ireland with Jean," Campion told the gardaí a few weeks later.

The plan was that Campion would move to Dublin and they would live as a couple. According to Campion, Gilbert's husband would have primary custody of the three children.

Gilbert bought a car in Southampton to transport Campion's possessions to Ireland. On 26 August, the pair took the ferry to Dublin. Campion booked into the Travelodge Hotel. Gilbert paid his bill.

The following day, while Bourke was out, Campion arrived at Larverna Dale. He stayed a while, had something to eat and smoked a cigarette.

By that evening, Bourke was in a highly emotional state. He sent a text message to a work colleague. "I had to get out of the house or I would have killed her… She arrived back [from England] just as I was leaving to collect [his daughter]. Seems he came back with her. There was a smell of tobacco, BO and two dirty plates.

"Things got worse. We had a massive row. I told her there would be fisticuffs if he turned up in the house while I was there. I just hate her. "I had to get out of the house or I would have killed her."

At 5.30am the following morning, Gilbert left her home and went to meet Campion in the hotel. While she was away, the children awoke. They and their father played upstairs before rising. When his wife arrived back, Bourke had a shower and went downstairs.

He took a knife from the kitchen. The couple's 10-year-old daughter told the gardaí what she saw happening.

"My dad came in. He was talking aggressively, like you do when you're cross.

"Dad was standing in the doorway between the hall and the living room. He stepped towards her. He had a knife. I saw the knife when my dad pushed my mum over. She was pushed over the chair on her back. She tried to grab my dad's hand to stop him. He was trying to stab her."

The child added: "My mum and dad were fighting. My mum had a boyfriend."

Marital problems

The child also sketched the background to her parents' marital problems.

"My mum told dad she wanted a divorce. When he heard this for the first time he said that he wanted to jump off a cliff.

"Mum and dad were fighting a lot since mum told dad she wanted a divorce… two months ago.

"I don't know why she wanted a divorce."

After stabbing his wife, David Bourke dialled 999. He told firefighter Maurice McCann that his wife appeared to be still alive.

"That's why somebody has to get here. I've three kids crying here. I'm not going to do anything else to her. She's still alive." The firefighter could hear children crying in the background. "The kids are in no danger," Bourke told him. "I love those kids."

Bourke was taken to Blanchardstown garda station, where he made a number of admissions.

"When I was on the phone, my daughter was giving mouth-to-mouth to my wife. I put a cushion under her head to support her," he said. "I gave her mouth-to-mouth several times." He said he had intended "to cause her pain; it wasn't to kill her". He felt "bad and remorseful" for what he had done.

He told the gardaí his wife had "ruined my life, marriage and family, but I still love her".

"I didn't want to be with any other woman. I told her that I wanted to grow old with her. She was the love of my life."

Later in the day, Campion drove over to Laverna Dale. He had been trying to contact Jean, but with no luck. So, in a worried state, he went to her house. He saw the gardaí there and realised something awful must have happened.

State pathologist Marie Cassidy told the court last week that Gilbert had died due to four stab wounds to the back. Her body also had defence injuries to her hands, some of which were caused by "grasping the blade, confirming she struggled with her attacker".

Campion didn't travel from England for the trial of the man accused of murdering the woman he claimed to have loved profusely. Bourke was accompanied to court by his parents. Jean Gilbert's parents and other relatives were also in court.

Throughout the week, Bourke frequently broke down whenever proceedings referred back to aspects of the two-month ordeal that preceded his wife's death.

During his evidence on Thursday, he broke down in loud sobs at various times. He apologised to Gilbert's family and his children for what he did.

"I loved her. I hated what she was doing, but I loved my wife." He said he had lost his head on the morning in question and he would have to live with it for the rest of his life.

His counsel told the court the whole affair was tragic, involving the destruction of an ordinary, happy, middle-class family.

"He [Bourke] pleaded with his wife to go into counselling. He pleaded to no avail… Mr Campion was a ruthless, heartless individual. He had only an interest in frivolity with Miss Gilbert, what he could get from her."

The lawyer told the jury Bourke had been subjected to extreme provocation.

"The breaking point for this unfortunate wreck of a human being came on the morning of the 28th." (After Gilbert had returned from her early-morning visit to Campion.)

He asked the jury to return a manslaughter rather than murder verdict.

Judge Barry White told the jury that in theory it had three possible verdicts, guilty of murder, guilty of manslaughter or not guilty. The last one, he said, would be a perverse verdict in light of the evidence.

The seven-man, five-woman jury retired at 3pm on Friday. After four hours deliberation, White told them he was sending them home for the weekend. Their deliberations continue at 11am tomorrow.

Extracts from Robert Campions's Letter

I know I'm tired and although this is the longest sentence, I'm going to write it before my head explodes. Everything you say is true. My body is aching and throbbing in the same way, but not just lust...

I tell you I want to be with you physically, not just spiritually. I want feisty... but most of all I want to be quiet with you; to sense you, to have your scent, to fold your clothes like I used to. To cook with you, grow old with you, to caress you gently, to curl up with you. To look after you when you have a chill or are poorly, to make you a cup of tea, to hold your hand, go for very long walks, to listen to music with you, to argue with you…

I want my Jean. Yes, you're mine, not to control and manipulate, but to love like no man could ever love a woman more... The truth is I've had no steady girlfriend since you. I've always said that not marrying you was the biggest mistake of my life, and because of that I didn't want anyone else. I felt the time was right to ignite the volcano, especially as you were shacked up with Monsieur Le Grumpy.

I will never disappear from your life, but then love has never meant to me what it means now. I respect you Jean in every sense – physically, spiritually and sexually. I would be fully honoured in the future if you would become my wife. Oh God, the most love that man could give a woman.