A WOMAN whose husband is on trial for her murder disappeared after her husband caught her kissing another man, a Central Criminal Court jury has heard.
John O'Brien (41), a bus driver, Ballinakill Downs, Co
Waterford, denies murdering Meg Walsh (35)
in October 2006. In his opening, Denis Vaughan Buckley SC,
prosecuting, told the jury of seven men and five women that Ms
Walsh was last seen on October 1st, 2006.
Her body was recovered from the river Suir two weeks later. She had died from severe blunt force trauma to the head and had also received blunt force trauma to her shoulders and right arm.
Mr Buckley said it would hear that she had been drinking with her husband and another man, Owen Walsh, at the bar of the Woodlands Hotel on the night of September 30th. They left the hotel at about 4am and went back to the house Ms Walsh shared with her husband. They continued drinking and Mr Walsh accepted an invitation to stay over.
Mr Buckley told the jury it would hear that as she was showing him the room where he would be sleeping, Ms Walsh kissed Mr Walsh goodnight and he returned the kiss. Mr O'Brien came into the room and asked what was going on. Mr Walsh told him: "It was nothing. It's just the drink," but Mr O'Brien ordered him out of the house.
Mr Buckley told the jury that Mr Walsh would say there was
aggression in Mr O'Brien's voice when he
ordered him out of the house. From the time Mr O'Brien said
she left the house at about 8.30pm on October 1st until her body
was recovered on October 15th, he never reported his wife missing,
suggested where she could be or gave gardaí any help to find
her.
Mr Buckley said he told gardaí she had gone before. She had stayed in Jurys Hotel and come back the following day. He said that Mr O'Brien told gardaí Ms Walsh's passport was missing but gardaí searching the house found it in the top draw of her bedside cabinet.
Mr Buckley told the jury it would hear from Ms Walsh's best friend, Laura Cuddihy, who would tell them that she did not receive replies to text messages she sent to Ms Walsh on the morning of October 1st.
She repeatedly rang Ms Walsh's phone that evening but couldn't get any answer.
Eventually she and her partner and two other men walked to the house in Ballinakill Downs. Ms Walsh's car wasn't there but Mr O'Brien's was. Ms Cuddihy would say that she dropped a note into the house which read "How're ya? Hope you're well. Called coz yourphone is off. Text me."
The note was later found ripped up in a wheelie bin.
Mr Buckley said Ms Walsh's car was found abandoned on October 4th in a local hotel car park. Forensic tests found blood-staining to the inside of the car, the boot and the bumper. DNA testing matched the blood to Ms Walsh and a mixed profile which contained elements found in Mr O'Brien's profile. A car mat found in the area was found to be stained with Ms Walsh's blood.
Car keys given to gardaí by Mr O'Brien were found to be not the spares he said they were but the main keys with a fob to unlock the car. Mr Buckley said CCTV footage of the car being left showed that the car was locked using a key fob, although the quality was not good enough to identify the person using the keys.
He said a second key was found by gardaí without a key fob,
which was found to be the
spare key to Ms Walsh's car. Mr Buckley told the jury they
would be hearing from witnesses who had sold Ms Walsh the silver
Mitsubishi Carisma who would testify that only two keys were
supplied with the car.
He said Mr O'Brien also asked the Garda family liaison officer about the CCTV footage and whether it was possible to identify the person who locked the car. He said it was the State's case that Ms Walsh did not drive her car to the car park.
Whoever killed her had disposed of the body before abandoning the car.
He told the jury they would also hear from Ms Walsh's daughter from her first marriage, Sasha Keating, who would tell them that she received a phone call from Mr O'Brien on October 14th.
He asked her if she was okay and when she asked if she could come round and collect her mother's things, he paused for a couple of seconds then said: "You can, you can."
The trial is continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Barry White and the jury. It is expected to last three weeks.