A WATERFORD man told gardaí a "pack of lies" when they interviewed him about the murder of his wife, a Garda witness has told a Central Criminal Court jury.
Inspector John Hunt told defence counsel Paddy McCarthy SC, in cross-examination, that John O'Brien had been consistently unhelpful. He conceded that Mr O'Brien had made a voluntary statement to gardaí but said "he made a statement which, as far as I am concerned, is a pack of lies".
"Initially Meg Walsh was just a missing person so obviously we took statements from various people to see what we could ascertain and each statement was taken at face value. But as we went on it appeared that John O'Brien was telling lots of lies."
Bus driver Mr O'Brien (41), Ballinakill Downs, Co Waterford, denies murdering the 35-year-old mother of one on a date between October 1st, 2006 and October 15th, 2006.
Insp Hunt told Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, that mobile phone evidence would show that Mr O'Brien was not driving home shortly after 9pm on Monday, October 2nd, the day after his wife was reported missing, as he had told gardaí.
In interviews with gardaí, Mr O'Brien said he had driven around Waterford after finishing work on Monday evening, looking for his wife's car. When gardaí told him that his phone had been "pinging" off the phone mast on the city centre Cove Centre, close to where his wife's car had been abandoned, he suggested that one of the local masts must have been out of order.
In an interview on December 9th, 2006, Mr O'Brien said that he had been "stalking" Owen Walsh, a friend he had caught his wife kissing on the night before she disappeared. He said he was convinced Mr Walsh had something to do with Meg's disappearance and on October 2nd he had parked his car in the Tesco car park at about 8.30pm, before taking a short cut to Mr Walsh's house.
Mr O'Brien said he spent between "20 minutes and half an hour" watching Mr Walsh's house before driving home again. He told gardaí he had not mentioned this in earlier interviews because he did not want them to know he had stalked Mr Walsh. "I didn't want you to think I was out to get her." He disputed the suggestion that his phone signal placed him near the car park of the Uluru Pub, where Meg's car was abandoned at 10.03 that evening, for 40 minutes.
Insp Hunt told Mr Buckley that Mr O'Brien's house alarm was not switched off until 10.11pm and it would have been impossible for him to enter the house without switching the alarm off.
He said Mr O'Brien had been shown CCTV footage showing him standing beside the river Suir on Sunday, October 1st at 5.30pm. Mr O'Brien told gardaí there was no contradiction in his account of his last conversation with Meg, which he said was back at the house at about 5.30pm. He said he had simply got the time wrong.
He said he had been "avoiding going back to the house". The jury heard last week that Mr O'Brien said Meg had told him he drove her to kiss Mr Walsh because he did not pay her enough attention.
Insp Hunt told Mr McCarthy that he was not suggesting that Mr O'Brien had been dumping Meg's body in the Suir at this point but he could easily have been looking for somewhere for this purpose. Two weeks later her body was recovered from the river not far from the spot where Mr O'Brien was standing in the video.
Mr O'Brien told gardaí he had thrown out a steering wheel lock when he was clearing out the house some time before Meg disappeared. The wheel lock was found in a bin Mr O'Brien asked gardaí to take out for the refuse collectors. In her evidence last week, State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy said she could not rule it out as the murder weapon.
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury.