Murder accused Patrick Quirke told gardaí he instinctively knew the body he found in an underground tank was that of missing man Bobby Ryan.
The jury has been hearing transcripts of voluntary interviews he gave to gardaí in May 2013 in which he said his only crime was having an affair with Mary Lowry.
Mr Quirke, a 50-year-old from Breanshamore, Co Tipperary, is accused of murdering Mr Ryan, a part-time DJ known as Mr Moonlight.
Mr Quirke has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ryan at an unknown location on a date between 3 June 2011 and 30 April 2013.
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Mr Ryan's body was discovered by Mr Quirke on a farm at Fawnagowan, Tipperary.
When asked to describe in detail what he had seen in the tank, he said every time he closed his eyes he could see it.
He described pulling back a flag stone to see skeletal remains with no sign of clothing.
Asked why he phoned his wife instead of gardaí, Mr Quirke said he did not think of anything logical, he just wanted to ring his wife, he was in shock.
When it was suggested that some men might not want their wife to see such a thing he said that had crossed his mind when he saw her look in to the tank, but he knew his wife would know what to do in a crisis.
"This is what I did, you can pick holes in it if you like, I needed her," he said.
Asked why it was a crisis, he said he considered it to be a crisis because his first instinct was that it was Mr Ryan.
Asked why he did not alert Ms Lowry, he said he had deliberately avoided meeting her because he was afraid of what he might say.
"I was concerned the body was naked. My first instinct was he didn't walk out of that house, I was afraid for myself."
He said someone had suggested that it was "standard" to remove the clothing to get rid of forensics and that someone professional would remove the clothing from a body.
Gardaí asked how someone who was not thinking straight could come up with that theory. He replied it was "just instinct".
Asked why he was afraid of Ms Lowry he said "she is vicious, she had abused me the night before".
Asked why he had an instinct it was Mr Ryan he replied "Sure who else would it be. I didn't believe he went to Spain to start a new life. I always thought something sinister had happened. I knew he didn't commit suicide or go roaming around the woods so no one could find him, I knew he didn't hitch a lift to Rosslare."
Asked why he did not believe it was suicide, he replied: "Because they did not find the body. People who commit suicide want to be found."
He also told gardaí his name had been destroyed in the town he had lived in for years, but said his only crime was having an affair with Ms Lowry and he had to clear his name.
Mr Quirke had earlier explained to gardaí how he had taken his tractor and a slurry vacuum tanker to the farm at Fawnagowan with the intention of emptying one of the slurry tanks.
He believed the run off tank from the old milking parlour would contain water because of an earlier leak in the milking parlour.
He intended to use the water from the run off tank to mix with the slurry before spreading it.
He said he usually got a contractor to do this, but had decided to do the job himself because he had vehicles on loan with the intention of buying them.
The owner of the vehicles later phoned him asking for a cheque when he had seen them on the news.
He said he had never taken water from that tank before but had expected it to be two-thirds or half full.
When he placed the pipe into the tank he was disappointed there was so little water but proceeded to take what was in it.
He believed the suction pipe had stuck to the bottom of it and when he removed the lid partially he discovered the body, he said.
Earlier in the interview, he had been asked by gardaí to outline his movements on the day Bobby Ryan disappeared.
He said he had gone to the farm at Fawnagowan to collect some bulls and bring them to his own house.
A young farm worker had come to work with him by chance that morning, allowing him to leave to collect the bulls before his own cows had finished milking.
In another interview Pat Quirke told gardaí he had discussed having a future with Mary Lowry but not too seriously because it was not practical.
In December 2010 he found out she was seeing Bobby Ryan and had been lying to him. He said he took her phone and texted Bobby Ryan to tell him Mary Lowry had not been honest with him and that she had been seeing him for the past three years.
"He rang back and I said sorry but I'm the man, that is all I said I hung up."
He said he was angry and Mary Lowry was angry and blamed him for ruining her relationship with Bobby Ryan.
Later it appeared Mary Lowry had fixed the relationship and she was happy.
Mr Quirke told gardaí: "I was angry because she was happy and she didn't care if I was happy or sad."
The following January he met Bobby Ryan at Mr Ryan's request and used the meeting to apologise to him for the shock he caused with the phone call.
"I was happy enough because he didn't see me as a person who had it in for him." He said there weren’t heated words or exchanges and they shook hands. He wished them well.
After that he said it "all started to hit" and he realised he had never grieved for his best friend, Martin Lowry, who was Mary Lowry's late husband.
He was referred for counselling.
He tried to keep things harmonious with Mary Lowry because of family connections and arranged to go to see Brendan Grace with his wife, Mary Lowry and Bobby Ryan.
After Bobby Ryan went missing he did not discuss it much with Mary Lowry because she was "indifferent to it". He and Mary Lowry did not resume their relationship but were physically intimate four times after Mr Ryan disappeared.
He said he was not angry that his affair with Mary Lowry had ended but was angry at the way he was treated. He was never going to leave his wife and Mary Lowry had never asked him to.
He said he had never threatened Bobby Ryan in any way and he challenged anyone to provide evidence that he had.
He said: "I did not kill Bobby Ryan. There is someone out there who did and he is laughing at the moment because you are looking at me."
