A VIDEO compilation covering the days around the disappearance of Meg Walsh, who was later found dead in the river Suir, was shown to the jury as the trial of her husband for murder continued at the Central Criminal Court.
Bus driver John O'Brien (41) denies murdering Ms Walsh in October 2006.
Ian McArthur, a CCTV expert, told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that gardaí used more than 20 separate distinguishing features to identify both Ms Walsh's silver Mitsubishi Carisma and Mr O'Brien's Mazda 323.
In the video compilation, the jury saw a black Mazda closely resembling Mr O'Brien's car heading out of Waterford at 4.13pm on Sunday, October 1st.
At 5.25pm, the car is seen travelling back towards the city. Then, at 5.35pm, it stops near the river Suir and the driver, identified by gardaí as Mr O'Brien, gets out and walks over to the river for some minutes before returning to the car. At 8.55pm, a silver Mitsubishi Carisma resembling the one belonging to Meg Walsh is seen driving towards Waterford city.
Early the next morning, at 12.52am, a silver Carisma is seen heading away from the quays, passing out towards the Dunmore Road at 1.03am. At 9.24am, a dark-coloured Mazda 323 is seen heading towards Waterford. A similar vehicle is seen again at 2.55pm also heading towards Waterford.
At 8.32pm, a Mazda is seen at the Tesco petrol station near the car park in which Mr O'Brien says he parked that evening when he went looking for his wife's car.
At 10.03pm, a silver Carisma is seen parking in the car park of the Uluru pub. The jury have already heard that this car was found by gardaí two days later. It was covered in Ms Walsh's blood.
Mr McArthur also showed the jury comparison footage showing shots of the two cars being merged with sections of the CCTV footage to highlight the similarities. He said that in some of the footage it was not possible to see unique features such as stickers on the windscreen. He agreed it was not possible to see the face of the driver or the licence plate of the vehicles.
Mr Justice Barry White said that "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck, or in this case a Carisma". But Mr McArthur said he could not tell Mr McCarthy "whose duck it was".