A twisted man poured petrol over his wife before setting her alight while she was trapped in a car.
Harrowing details of Katrina Rainey's death were heard for the first time at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday where her husband Thomas Johnston Rainey appeared in the dock, reports Belfast Live.
The 61-year old previously confessed to murdering his 53-year-old wife at their family farm on Quarry Road in Knockloughrim on October 12, 2021.
He was handed a life sentence in May this year when he admitted the charge and next week he'll be informed of the minimum time he'll serve in jail before being considered eligible for release.
Mr Justice O'Hara described the mum-of-six's murder as the "ultimate act of domestic violence".
Crown prosecutor Richard Weir KC told the court that before she was sedated and rushed to hospital when the incident occurred at 5.40am, the severely injured Co Derry woman miraculously was able to tell the emergency services what had happened.
A 999 call was made a few minutes later and paramedics and police rushed to the farm. When they arrived they witnessed Mrs Rainey's children placing wet towels on her as she lay on the ground.
While medics tended to the badly burned woman, she told a doctor that she had been on her way to work when her husband opened the passenger door of her car, threw liquid round her then set her on fire.
Before she taken by ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Mrs Rainey was also able to give a statement to police at the scene.
She told them: "I was going to work. I came out of the house and got into the car and turned the ignition on.
"My husband opened the passenger door, he threw something in a bucket over me. He held onto my fleece so I couldn't get out of the car.
"He lit me, he lit me with a torch or lighter or something. I had my seatbelt on and I couldn't get out of the car, but then I tried to get out and I threw myself on the ground and kept hitting my arms. I needed to get some help so I put my hand on the horn."
When police probed why her husband had done this, Mrs Rainey told police she wanted him out of the house and had been to see a solicitor.
Over 90% burns of her body was burned and despite medical intervention, she passed away in hospital at 9.49pm.
The lawyer said that Thomas Rainey also sustained burns and after being treated in hospital, he was arrested for the murder of his wife.
He initially claimed that after getting up at 5am to tend to cattle, his wife Katrina said goodbye to him as she was leaving for work. He then heard a car horn, looked outside and saw her car on fire. Thomas said this prompted him to run out and lift a bucket sitting beside the gate which he threw into the car to try and dampen the flames.
Mr Weir said his version on events was untrue. He stated: "The victim was vulnerable. She was an unsuspecting spouse preparing to depart for her work in the early morning.
"She was trapped in her car and she was prevented - as she describes it - from either defending herself or being able to escape."
The prosecutor also spoke of the "infliction of extensive injuries" which he would have caused "agony before death" and said he couldn't recall a case of this type before in Northern Ireland.
Defence barrister Greg Berry KC, representing Thomas Rainey, told Mr Justice O'Hara that prior to the fatal incident there was no history of domestic abuse.
Mr Berry spoke of his client's difficult childhood, his "long history" of depression and mental illness and the impact the death of one of his six children in an accident had upon him.
He said his client was "deeply attached" to the family farm - and that the prospect of losing it, set against a backdrop of "mental fragility", had a "profound effect" on him.
The barrister added that Rainey expressed "contrition and remorse" for what happened to a Probation Officer and is "a man who is horrified by what he has done."
After listening to submissions from the Crown and defence, Mr Justice O'Hara said he would pass sentence next Wednesday (5th).
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