The jury in the trial an ex-soldier accused of murdering Marie Greene has heard that he stabbed the 37-year-old to death because she was blackmailing him and threatening to reveal their relationship to his wife.

Jimmy Devaney, with an address at Millbrook, Monksland, Athlone denies the murder.

Prosecutors for the state have told the jury that during the course of the trial they will hear evidence that Marie Greene was a prostitute who had been extorting the then 63-year-old for money or she would reveal their relationship to his wife.

Leading up to the night of Marie Greene's killing, he had borrowed €1,000 from a friend he played cards with and €3,000 from a brother-in-law in England.

On the evening of Sunday 13, Devaney went to the Lighthouse Casino in Athlone before leaving to pick up the victim - he then drove her to Annagorta bog outside the town where the prosecution allege he stabbed Ms Greene five to six times.

Mr Devaney returned to play cards.

A few days later he called the casino manager, a key witness, and confessed to the killing while asking him to get rid of CCTV footage of that night.

This led the sequence of events to his arrest - and on the night of Feb 21 - during Gardai interviews he told officers where they could find the body.

Gardai discovered the body of the victim a day later on Feburary 22.