A 35-year-old Dublin man has admitted trying to hire a hitman to murder a Canadian couple his wife had befriended online.

Bryan Kennedy, with an address at Mount Tallant Avenue, Harold’s Cross, Dublin 6, paid thousands of Euro to a man who told him he knew dangerous people who could do it.

After reading intimate Facebook chats between his wife and a Canadian couple she met online, the court heard Bryan Kennedy felt betrayed and when he confronted her, she told him she no longer loved him and stopped wearing her wedding ring.

Kennedy then confided in a man who can’t be named.

This Mr X told him he knew people who could either threaten this couple or have them “painted,” which Kennedy understood to mean, “have them killed”.

The price for the double hit was set at €10,000.

Kennedy gave Mr X €8,000 and the court heard he and his family were threatened when he didn’t come up with the rest.

In any event, the judge was told Mr X didn’t have the capability to cause the couple any harm and, in reality, their lives were never actually in danger.

Kennedy didn’t know that though and when he handed over the money, he believed they were going to be killed.

He said he did it for “love and heartbreak.”

He’ll be sentenced in the new year.