Galway Advertiser 2001/2001_05_10/GA_10052001_E1_010.pdf 

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Parents and sister of Galway schoolgirl testify at opening of murder and rape trial
by Rita O'Reilly at the Central Criminal Court

The parents and sister of a schoolgirl

whose body was found on a remote beach on the west coast over two years ago were among the first to give (Wed).

evidence as the trial of a man accused of her murder opened yesterday

T

he jury heard that forensic evidence would show that fibres from clothes worn by the schoolgirl were found on the jumper of the accused and on the front passenger seat of his car. The County Galway man on trial for the murder and two counts of rape cannot be named, for legal r e a s o n s . T h e case is being h e a r d ' i n camera'. In the Central Criminal Court, the man, a 26year-old, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of the 17-year-old schoolgirl at a beach on the west coast on December 6 1998. He also denies that on the same night, he had unlawful sexual intercourse with the girl, and he denies a charge that he sexually assaulted her in circumstances that included the use of an object. The girl had travelled in a car with her sister and friends to a local disco on the previous night. She was not going to the disco but had decided to go in the car "for the spin". In evidence, the girl's mother told the court that she discovered her daughter was missing when she went to wake her up the next morning. Shortly after midday, she rang the Gardai. The girl's body was found in a rocky inlet on a remote beach later that afternoon. Her body was found by a local man out walking his dog.

m i d d a y that d a y , t h e family s e a r c h e d t h e locality, including a local beach, a hall and the -- mother tells daughters school, but to no avail. As he w a s returning h o m e , he said, he w a s on fateful night stopped on the roadside by his sister-in-law, who was with a priest and a local woman. They reaking down a number of times as she gave told him of the finding of his daughter's body. her e v i d e n c e , the m o t h e r i d e n t i f i e d a Earlier, opening the case to the jury, counsel for number of items belonging to her daughter, the DPP, Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC said including a fleece jacket found near where her that forensic evidence was of "very considerable body lay, and a necklace chain and half-heart importance" to the prosecution case. pendant with the w o r d s " F r i e n d s F o r e v e r " He said that a state forensic scientist would give imprinted on it. evidence that fibres found on a j u m p e r that The pendant was one of a pair worn by the girl witnesses will say was worn by the accused on and her best friend at school, her mother said. the night of t h e m u r d e r gave "very strong The girl was in her fifth year at school, was support to the proposition" that the girl was in always "happy and smiling" and never appeared contact with the accused's jumper. to be worried about anything. Fibres found in the front passenger seat of his A week before the killing, she was very happy car gave "strong support" to the proposition that when a teacher complimented her for an English she had been in the car, the evidence would essay she wrote for class. She normally went out show. on Saturday night with her friends, first going to The scientist would also say that she found two a local pub, and getting a hackney car from there red acrylic fibres on the dead girl's clothes to a disco venue. which matched fibres in a "fluffy red seat cover" She did not have a regular boyfriend, but had in the accused's car. told her mother that a student in a G a l w a y Mr Buckley said the prosecution would call school was to take her to a debs ball that year. witnesses who would allege that when the girl The night she w a s killed, she w a s "initially was in her friend's car parked outside the hotel reluctant" to go to the location where two discos where the disco was being held, "a big blondie The jury heard that evidence of a post-mortem were held, one for older people and one for fellow in his twenties was sitting on a wall near examination would show that the girl died from young people. the car" and that he "passed by the car on a few One of the girl's two sisters, an 18-years-old arts drowning and compression of the neck. occasions and looked in". T h e prosecution student at the time of the killing, told the trial The deputy state pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy alleges that this man was the accused. that the girl "wasn't too pushed" whether she will give evidence that she found features of The girl became separated from her company went to the village where the discos were held or drowning, injuries to the neck, and evidence of when she was trying to go to a local chip shop not. But she remembered that later, in a local sexual assault.. to go to the toilet at around 12:40am, the trial The girl's mother told the trial that her last pub, her sister said they would "go for a spin" heard. She never came back to the car. "She just words to her two daughters as she dropped them and a friend agreed to drive them there. disappeared from the scene", off by car at a local pub prior to their getting a When they got to the hotel where the adult disco "Mr Buckley said. "It is the prosecution's lift to the disco were: "Don't be late and be was to be held, she left her sister in the car and contention that she was taken away or went she never saw her again. careful". away with someone in that period." When she returned home in the early hours of the morning, she wasn't alarmed when her sister wasn't already there, and left the front door unlocked for her. 'She just disappeared from In his evidence, the girl's father said that after the scene" - court hears reporting their daughter missing, shortly after

"Don't

be late and be

careful"

H

B

e said that in a major search of the area after the body was discovered, gardai found what the prosecution contend was the victim's panties in a search of the main road. There were no panties on her when her body was found, although she still wearing trousers, socks and a jumper. Her fleece jacket was found close by. Some 500 yards from her body, gardai found a chain and the silver half-heart pendant in foliage on the roadside. The accused lived a half a mile from this spot In further searches, they also found a watch, its silver bracelet strap, a plastic brown hair comb and eye-liner in the vicinity of the body. Mr Buckley said the body was left in a "very remote area" accessed by minor roads. "You have to know the area to go there", he suggested.

"You

have

to know

the

area

to go

there"

T

he prosecution is also alleging that a car spotted by two neighbours of the accused in the area at 1:50am on the morning of the killing was the accused's car "leaving the scene, the deceased having been killed". Mr Buckley said that the accused was seen at 2:15am that morning but was not seen between 1:40am and that time. There would also be evidence that earlier that night, he w a s involved in "an altercation" in which blows were struck with a man who was with the accused's former girlfriend. Witnesses would testify to seeing scratches on his hands the following day that were not visible the night before. The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick Smith in the Central Criminal Court.