The former girlfriend of a Sligo man accused of murdering 14-year-old Melissa Mahon has told a jury that she had been told that Melissa was pregnant by him and that he had a plan to kill her rather than go to prison.
Angelique Sheridan told the Central Criminal Court that she had been seeing Ronald McManus, also known as Ronald Dunbar, for five or six weeks around the time that Melissa went missing.
She told the court that one of Mr McManus's daughters told her that Melissa was pregnant by Mr McManus.
Ms Sheridan said that on another occasion and in the presence of another of his daughters he said he would not go to prison for Melissa. "He said he would kill her; strangle her, he had it planned."
Mr McManus (44) of Rathbraughan Park, Sligo, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the schoolgirl on a date unknown between September 14th and 30th, 2006. He also denies threatening to kill one of his daughters during the same period.
Ms Sheridan told Sean Gillane BL, prosecuting, that the accused told her about a young girl, Melissa, who was being abused by her father and beaten by her mother and wanted him to protect her.
During the time that Melissa was missing from her family home Ms Sheridan heard the accused on the phone to gardaí saying that he did not know where she was when Ms Sheridan knew that Melissa was in his house. She said Mr McManus told her that because Melissa had not made a statement about the abuse she suffered she would therefore be brought home by gardaí.
She said the accused asked her to bring Melissa to a clearing in a wood to meet a social worker. He dropped the child off at her house in the boot of his car, covered with a blanket.
She said Melissa, the accused and his daughters stayed in her house the night before the meeting and before they went to bed she spoke to the girls in his absence.
"Melissa told me she was Cleopatra reincarnated and Ronnie was a reincarnated lord or husband. They were going to move to the highlands or the new world and when they died they would be burned on a boat together," she said.
Ms Sheridan said Melissa said she used to love the accused but now she loved him like a father. She said he admitted Melissa had previously been infatuated with him and that he had barred her from his house for that reason.
Ms Sheridan told Mr Gillane that on another occasion the accused was in her flat and he received a phone call. She said she heard a female shouting, he said "I'm coming, I'm coming" and left. When he returned he said Melissa had been in some stress and was making strange noises. "He said there was something inside her and he took it out. He said it was an exorcism".
She said he came to her flat again with his eldest daughter, Shirley, and Ms Sheridan asked what was happening to Melissa. "Shirley said something about prison and he said he wouldn't go to prison for her, he'd kill her, strangle her, he had it planned".
Under cross examination by Brendan Grehan SC, defending, Ms Sheridan said that the accused had told her that he had been in the witness protection programme after giving evidence against drug dealers in the UK and that he and Shirley had been shot. She said he had been in Scotland but had to get away as he was under threat and was being called a pervert.
Mr Grehan suggested to her that she did not tell gardaí the accused said he had a plan to kill Melissa until she made a statement in April 2008, after he had been arrested and charged.
Ms Sheridan said she had spoken to a garda in confidence and expressed her concern for the girl in September 2006. She said she could not believe what she had heard and that she was frightened of the accused. She said she knew something was terribly wrong but didn't know what to do.
Mr Grehan said that Shirley will give evidence for the prosecution but will say that she had no recollection of the conversation alleged by Ms Sheridan.
When pressed as to why she did not go to gardaí when Melissa was missing from the care facility Ms Sheridan said "she wasn't missing, she was with Ronnie. I didn't know she was in care. His daughter told me Melissa was with Ronnie. She told me that Melissa was pregnant to Ronnie".
Ms Sheridan denied that she drank or that she got one of Mr McManus's daughters drunk and that was why the relationship ended.
She also denied Mr Grehan's suggestion that her evidence was a "total figment of your imagination and if there was any reality to it would have surfaced long before April 2008".
Garda Pat Conway told the court that he had been closely involved with dealing with Melissa's disappearances in August and September 2006. He said he knew the accused "of old" and said that Mr McManus agreed to help in the search for Melissa before she was taken into care in August. "He said he'd send out feelers through travellers and others".
Gda Conway said the accused was the only link to the girl at that stage and appeared to be concerned for her and complained that the authorities were not doing enough.
Gda Conway said the accused was unhappy that the finger was being pointed at him and that he was being made a scapegoat. He also complained about garda searches of his home in October 2006.
He also agreed that sightings of Melissa were reported by people who knew her in October 2006 and March 2007. He said he was unaware that Melissa's mother Mary was spreading rumours about the accused having an inappropriate relationship with Melissa.
The trial is expected to continue for another four weeks before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of six men and six women.