A Stanley knife, believed to be the alleged murder weapon in the killing of Ms Lisa Bell, has been mislaid in the course of a Garda investigation, it was revealed at the Central Criminal Court yesterday.
Det Garda Eamon Hennelly, from the Garda Technical Bureau, told a murder trial jury that he examined the handle of a red Stanley knife found lying inside a white runner on the bedroom floor of Ms Lisa Bell (22) in December 2001, and handed it back to a Garda liaison officer.
Det Garda Hennelly was giving evidence on the seventh day of the trial of Mr David Bell (26), of St Theresa's Gardens, Dublin.
Mr Bell denies murdering his younger sister, Ms Lisa Bell, at their home on December 16th, 2001. Ms Bell's body was found by her father, Mr Pat Bell, and Sinn Féin TD Mr Aengus Ó Snodaigh, stuffed in a sleeping bag at the bottom of her wardrobe. She was the only daughter in a family of four.
Det Hennelly said "I took possession of a red-handled Stanley knife - it was in a Nike shoe in the bedroom where Lisa Bell was murdered.
"When I had conducted my examination I handed it to the forensic liaison officer to be handed back to the station dealing with the case. I found out in the first day or two of this trial that it subsequently went missing," he said.
Forensic scientist Mr Michael Burrington, of the Garda Forensic Department, told the court that a DNA analysis of the blood on the red Stanley knife revealed a match with that of Ms Bell. "The chances of another match would be less than one in one thousand million."
Det Hennelly later told the jury he found a note written by Mr David Bell in a notebook in his bedroom in which he apologised to his sister for selling her son's Christmas toys to fund his heroin addiction. Mr John Edwards SC, prosecuting, read out the note addressed to Ms Bell: "Lisa I'm so sorry for all the things I've done there's only one thing I can do to make things better." Mr Bell wrote that his family was "better off without" him and that he was "only trouble".
The court heard that Mr Bell immediately admitted killing his sister to gardaí when he returned to the flat on the night Ms Bell's body was found.
He had tried to enter the flat to get some clothes when he was stopped by Garda Enda Daly. He asked Mr Bell what he had been doing all day and replied that he had been "just walking around". He then said 'I did it this morning, I stabbed her'," Garda Daly told the jury.
Garda Declan Yeates also told the jury that "David Bell said 'I had a row with my sister. She was trying to throw me out of my flat. I stabbed her with a Stanley knife in the neck. She was in the bed when I stabbed her. The knife is still there'." Mr Bell then told him he put his sister in a sleeping bag and put her in a wardrobe, Garda Yeates said.
"I felt he was aware of what he was doing at the time," Garda Yeates told the court.
The trial continues.