But Ira Keeshin's perception of their marriage changed radically when he received a call from his daughter on November 3, 2003, informing him she had been beaten up by her husband, who then walked out of their apartment.

He was shocked again on November 6, the night before the accused's arrest, when he heard for the first time the suggestion that Robert Kissel's body might be concealed in a storeroom.

When told by defense counsel Alexander King, SC, that he would be inquiring about the events of that November, Keeshin asked the judge for some time to "get my breath back.'' Apologizing to the judge, Keeshin said: "There's waves of emotion that just overcome me. I can't stop 'em.''

When Keeshin first heard of the alleged assault and was advised by his son to go to Hong Kong for his daughter's "protection,'' he braced himself for the worst-case scenario.

"You hear all these horror stories of guys that beat up women and then come back and kill the kids, kill the wife and then themselves,'' he said.

He could not remember the details of the conversation which first informed him of the alleged assault. "When a daughter calls you and says `I've been beaten up,' you're just in shock,'' he said.

Kissel, 41, is accused of drugging Robert Kissel with a milkshake laced with sedatives then bludgeoning him to death as he lay unconscious at the foot of their bed in their luxury Parkview apartment on November 2, 2003.

She has testified that there was a furious fight that night, in which she feared for her life as her husband bore down on her swinging a baseball bat, repeatedly saying: "I'm going to kill you, you bitch.''

She has accepted that she killed her husband, but said she cannot recall how she came to inflict five fatal wounds to the side of his head. She denies the charge of murder and is out on bail.

The decomposing body of Robert Kissel, a former high-flying Merrill Lynch banker, was found wrapped in a rug and locked in a storeroom in the Parkview residential complex on November 7.

Keeshin testified he thought Robert Kissel had been a "good guy, pretty industrious and bright'' and they bonded over their interest in business. He said they had particularly lengthy talks about his son-in-law's move from Goldman Sachs to Merrill Lynch, often over glasses of scotch and cigars.

"It was a nice relationship,'' he said.

He never detected that Robert Kissel had any problem with drugs but, although he had known there were arguments, "she said she was OK.''

Around September, 2003, the accused phoned him to say her husband was jealous of their close relationship and wished her to stop speaking to him on a daily basis.

"I said, `You know, your marriage is more important,''' said Keeshin. He said he understood that, "as Rob made more money, worked longer hours, traveled more, Nancy's life become more lonely.''

Keeshin arrived in Hong Kong on November 5 after his daughter informed him of an alleged attack by her husband. When he first saw her, "she looked terrible, she looked beat up,'' he said.

At 11pm on November 6, Keeshin went to the Parkview apartment on hearing the police had arrived. He said the police officer in charge took him aside, saying they had search warrants, and asked for the key to the storeroom.

At this point, he exclaimed: "Oh my God,'' because it was the first time he contemplated something else could have happened to Robert Kissel other than he had just disappeared.

As some of the officers opened up the storeroom, Keeshin said his daughter began shaking violently in the apartment, saying repeatedly, "He wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop.''

The officers present on that occasion have testified that Keeshin and the accused had a private conversation during which Keeshin exclaimed, "Oh my God, I don't believe it,'' although no one had noted it down.

Earlier Tuesday, the accused's half-brother Brooks Keeshin testified that he arrived in Hong Kong on November 8 to help pack the belongings of the children after he heard of her arrest.

He said he was accompanying her solicitor, Simon Clark, on November 9 when they carried out a general inspection of the apartment and found a baseball bat, identified as the one Robert Kissel was said to have been swinging at the accused.

He said Clark had seen the bat lying on the ground behind a chest of drawers, and he helped him move the furniture for him to retrieve the bat.

Under cross-examination, Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman suggested that Brooks Keeshin and Clark had led an "expeditionary force,'' conducting searches. They were then joined by "re-inforcements'' - King and Ira Keeshin - "armed with cameras.''

Brooks said they only moved out one piece of furniture, had one disposable camera with them and were only doing general searches to help with the children's packing and look for the accused's personal belongings.

Chapman will cross-examine Ira Keeshin today.