A man today told of his shock and disbelief when he found the dismembered body of a father-of-three hidden in the bushes of a derelict house while looking for his missing cat.
Joe Pierce told the murder trial of chef Ionut Cosmin Nicolescu at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork how he came home from work early on the afternoon of December 28th, 2018, to go looking for his cat, Mouse, after his partner told him the elderly pet had gone missing.
Mr Nicolescu from Branista Village, Damovita County, Romania, denies the murder of 64-year-old Frankie Dunne at Castle Greine House on Boreenamanna Road on a date unknown between December 27th and December 28th, 2019, contrary to Common Law.
Mr Pierce told how he had called to two of his neighbours on Rockboro Ave in Cork to look for the cat and, with the assistance of one neighbour, Brendan Kerrigan, he gained entry to the grounds of Castle Greine House, which is immediately behind Mr Kerrigan’s back garden.
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He started to search in the garden for Mouse and he went around the one side of a large bush and went down on his hands and knees to see if the cat was in the bushes. Although it was dark and the foliage was dense, he thought he could some rubbish.
“I went around the other side of the bush – I had turned on the torch on my phone and the next thing I saw was a set of feet. I followed up along with my torch and as I scanned further up, it was obviously the shape of a body – I was in disbelief at what I saw,” he said.
“I was trying to rationalize what I saw. I thought it was maybe a mannequin- the body was oriented with the feet pointing out and the rest of the body was facing in… then I saw the male genitalia. I got up and walked out as I knew I shouldn’t be there.”
Mr Pierce told how he went back to Mr Kerrigan who lowered a step ladder over his rear garden wall for him to get back into Mr Kerrigan’s house. He told him what he thought he had found, and he rang the gardaí, who arrived within five or 10 minutes.
Det Garda Brian Barron told how he was a uniformed officer at the time and arrived on the scene with his colleague Garda Mick Costello. They met Mr Pierce and Mr Kerrigan at the entrance to Castle Greine House on Boreenamanna Road, and they entered the property with them.
“Mr Pierce was visibly shaking – he said maybe it was a mannequin or a holy statue and he was apologizing in case he was after overreacting,” said Det Garda Barron, adding that he stopped Mr Pierce at a side gate to the back garden and asked him to point out where he had seen the body.
He and Garda Costello proceeded to search under the bush, and they approached it from different sides, meeting at the back, and he looked in with his torch where he saw the dismembered remains of a human torso, he told the court.
“I could tell it was a body – it was naked except for his socks. I could the head was gone, and the left arm was gone. I couldn’t see the right arm,” said Det Garda Barron who immediately withdrew and called for back up as he began to preserve the scene.
Garda Mick Costello corroborated Det Garda Barron’s evidence, telling how when he looked in under the bush, he saw the body of a deceased male. “The body was naked save for his socks and I could see the head and the left arm had been removed,” he said.
Det Garda Padraig Harrington was one of the first gardaí on the scene. He told how, after looking at the body, he called to the nearby Clanmornin House run by Cork Simon. He spoke to staff member, Don Bulman, who told him that there were two residents of the house missing.
Mr Bulman gave him a description of the first missing resident, and he knew from the description that the body was not that of that man. Once he heard the description of the other missing resident, Frankie Dunne, he surmised that it might well be his body that had been found.
Mr Bulman told Det Garda Harrington that Mr Dunne was 5ft 6in in height and was wearing a three-quarter length brown duffel coat and red beret and jeans and that he thought he had left Clanmornin House around 3.30pm on the previous day, December 27th.
“Clanmornin House is a dry house – residents are not allowed to drink on the premises. Frankie Dunne suffered from alcohol addiction – he would have left the house to do his drinking. He had moved on July 19th, 2019, so he would have been behaving himself at the house for six months.”
The case continues before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of four men and eight women at the Central Criminal Court sitting at Anglesea Street Courthouse in Cork and is expected to run for three weeks.
