Accused wife killer loved another

LESS than two months after the death of his de facto wife, murder accused Louis James Mahony was exchanging romantic emails with a woman in South Korea.

Toowoomba Supreme Court heard the emails were found when Mahony’s computer was downloaded by investigators.

Though he had met Mira Park at the Charleville goat abattoir where they both had worked, she had returned to South Korea.

In numerous emails read to the court, the pair had declared their love for each other almost daily from October 2, 2009, to early March 2010.

Mahony, 44, claims he found his de facto wife of 18 years, Lainie Coldwell, at the base of a large gum tree in front of their then home at 11 Walter St, Charleville, on the afternoon of August 23, 2009.

He claimed she had fallen from the tree while removing party lights and had hit her head on the rock garden around the base of the tree.

Lainie Coldwell died in hospital two days later.

The Crown accuses ex-policeman Mahony of killing Ms Coldwell and staging the scene to look as if she had fallen from the tree.

Mahony has pleaded not guilty to murder.

In one of his emails to Ms Park, Mahony wrote “Oh my God, I’m truly in love with a princess” and that “our hearts will always be together” and “I love you dearly, Mira”.

Mahony travelled to South Korea to meet Ms Park’s family and through the emails spoke of spending the rest of their lives together.

Scott Trevathon had worked with Mahony at the Charleville meatworks and told the court Mahony had told him three or four weeks before Ms Coldwell died that she was leaving him and that she would take their three-year-old daughter with her.

The trial continues Monday.