Killer looked up ‘get away with murder’ as he planned wedding
Brute’s chilling research before slaying own wife
TWISTED wife-killer Colin Whelan looked up ‘how to get away with murder’ while planning the wedding, his victim’s mother revealed.
Mary Gough thought she had met her soulmate – but six months after tying the knot evil Whelan strangled his 27-year-old bride and threw her down the stairs.
Whelan, then 29, rang 999 in tears on March 1, 2001 and deceived friends and family into believing Mary’s death was an accident.
After being charged with murder, computer analyst Whelan – who killed his wife to cash in on a €400k life insurance policy – faked his own death and fled to Majorca. Looking back, Mary’s devastated mother Marie said: “He must have never thought anything of Mary and our family. “He must have never loved her whatsoever and he had no thought for anyone but himself.” Marie thought her daughter seemed unhappy on her wedding day and even more miserable when the couple returned from their honeymoon. She said: “After Mary came back from honeymoon I noticed a change. “Mary was quieter and she wasn’t dressed up as she used to and Colin didn’t seem the same. “The week leading up to what happened to her, she’d ring me every evening. When I think about it now, I realise she must have been trying to tell me something but couldn’t say it.”
Gardai uncovered computer searches from the two months before Whelan’s wedding showing he’d been researching how to strangle or asphyxiate someone.
Investigating Sergeant Frank Gallagher said: “It was like looking at a bad horror movie.”
They also discovered he had been looking up American serial killer Henry Wallace, whose modus operandi was to strangle victims without leaving a mark.
Whelan’s search history also provided a motive. He had been having an affair with a woman in Wales on an online chatroom, who he’d promised to move to be with.
He was caught bartending in Majorca, using the alias Martin Sweeney, after a 14-month manhunt and became the first person extradited from Spain to Ireland. Ahead of his trial it came to light that he had attempted to force a previous girlfriend to have a DIY abortion and when she refused he kicked her in the stomach triggering a miscarriage.
Marie added: “He didn’t feel sorry when he’d done what he’d done.
“And he wouldn’t have ever been sorry, only he was caught.
“That’s one thing he was sorry for. He was caught.” Getting Away With Murder: The Killing of Mary Gough is on Virgin Media One tomorrow at 9pm.
He didn’t feel sorry for what he’d done...he wouldn’t have ever been sorry, only he was caught