A 33-year-old man charged with the murder of Romanian teenager Marioara Rostas, who went missing from Dublin in 2008, has been sent forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court.
The body of the 18-year-old woman was found following a 13-day search in the Wicklow Mountains in January this year. Her semi-decomposed remains were discovered in a shallow grave at Kippure near Manor Kilbride.
A postmortem revealed that Ms Rostas - who arrived in Dublin just three weeks before her disappearance - had been shot in the head.
She was last seen alive by her 15-year-old brother on January 6th, 2008, as she was getting into a car, while they were out begging on Lombard Street in Dublin’s south inner city.
On April 5th, Alan Wilson, of New Street Gardens, Dublin 8 was remanded in custody after he was charged with the murder of the 18-year-old at Brabazon Street on January 8th, 2008.
Det Insp Michael Cryan had said Mr Wilson replied: “I didn’t do this” when he was cautioned and charged.
Mr Wilson appeared again at Cloverhill District Court today, where he was served with a book of evidence by Det Insp Cryan.
Judge John Lindsay heard that the DPP consented to Mr Wilson being returned for trial to the Central Criminal Court.
The judge acceded to a request from defence solicitor Donough Molloy to grant legal aid including representation of two barristers.
Mr Wilson stood up after the book of evidence was served on him and the judge informed him that if he intended to use an alibi in his defence, he must give the prosecution written notification within 14 days.
Dressed in a striped shirt and black trousers, he did not address the court; his mother was in the public gallery and blew him a kiss at the end of the brief hearing.
His case will be listed during the Central Criminal Court’s next term which begins in October.
Marioara Rostas was one of 15 children born in Timisoara in Romania. Her parents, Marioara snr and Dimitru, a horse dealer, came to Ireland in 2007 and were later joined by their daughter.
Ms Rostas and family members began living in an abandoned bungalow on the outskirts of Donabate, in north Co. Dublin; their home had broken windows rubble blocking the driveway but no running water or electricity.