The father of two accused of murdering his wife during a boating holiday at Lough Erne as their children slept was described on Wednesday at his trial as appearing wet, cold, shaking and in shock as the tragedy unfolded at Devenish Island in the early hours of April 13, 2017.

Stephen McKinney, originally from Strabane, who lived with his family in Convoy, Co. Donegal, but now has an address in Castletown Square, Fintona, Tyrone, is on trial at Dungannon Crown Court, where he denies murdering his wife, Mrs. Lu Na McKinney.

RNLI crew members said the weather that night was dry, calm and bright and when they arrived on the scene they noticed a man on the back of a cruiser as a “casualty” was lifted from the water.

The first volunteer initially described McKinney as standing in a “dressing gown ... damp ... and looked like he potentially had been in the water”, and said that later, he noticed McKinney had changed his clothing and was wearing a “large cable-knit sweater”.

Under cross-examination from defence QC Martin O’Rourke, the crewman agreed he told police McKinney’s hair looked wet and he thought he’d been “in the water”.

Another RNLI member described taking a “quick glance” in the direction of the back of the boat, and “out of the corner” of his eye, saw a man in a dressing gown.

He said when later Mrs. Lu Na McKinney’s body was being removed from the area, her husband asked if he was to go with her.

“No you stay here and keep warm,” the officer told McKinney. He further agreed he’d described McKinney as having “a cold complication”, and he was “shaking ... he appeared cold and in shock”.

Yet another RNLI crewman accepted telling police at the time they “needed to move quickly [as] McKinney was going into shock”, and he appeared “panicked, upset”.

The RNLI member who helped remove Mrs. McKinney from the water thought her husband was standing at the back of the boat in a towel or a dressing gown.

He said McKinney, who told him he was “cold or wet”, initially “informed me the children were not aware of what happened, that they had been asleep”.

“He asked me on a number of occasions what the condition of his wife was, was she alive, and I told him we had transferred her to the appropriate medical care,” said the crewman.

He added McKinney “said at one stage he thought he had seen her move, and I presumed that’s when he saw us working on her on the jetty ... I said nothing further about it”.

The RNLI officer also accepted he’d told police McKinney “was shaking from head to toe” due to a “combination of cold and shock”, signs he was trained to look out for.

He further added that McKinney “seemed distressed and constantly asking about Lu Na ... that he was obviously distressed”.

The trial, which is expected to last for seven weeks, also heard on Tuesday from a police officer who was one of the first on the scene.

He said as they approached the hire cruiser he could see a male standing at the rear of the vessel and he called out to him.

“I shouted to the man, asking him where she [Lu Na] had entered the water ... where did she go in?” but got no reply, and “I had to repeat it to get an answer”.

He said the man, McKinney, was on his phone standing at the rear of the hire cruiser wrapped in a red blanket.

The officer said he shone his torch around the boat and on the water and he “saw a black object at the back of the moored-up boat”.

The trial continues.