A Waterford man told gardai 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 Mr 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 gardai 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 too 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) with an address in Ballinakill Downs, Co Waterford denies murdering the 35-year-old mother of one on a date between 1st October 2006 and 15 October 2006.
Inspector Hunt told Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, that mobile phone evidence would show that Mr O'Brien was not driving home shortly after 9 p.m on Monday October 2nd, the day after his wife was reported missing, as he had told gardai.
In interviews with gardai, Mr O'Brien said he had driven around Waterford after finishing work on Monday evening, looking for his wife's car. When gardai told him that his phone had been "pinging" of the phone mast on the city centre Cove Centre, close to where Meg's car had been abandoned he suggested that one of the local masts must have been out of order.
He disputed the suggestion that his phone signal put him near the car park of the Uluru Pub, where Ms Walsh's car was abandoned at 10.03 that evening, for 40 minutes.
Inspector Hunt said Mr O'Brien had also been shown CCTV footage showing him standing beside the River Suir on Sunday October 1st at 5.30p.m. Mr O'Brien told gardai he had been "avoiding going back to the house"
The Inspector 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 could easily have been looking for somewhere for this purpose. Her body was recovered from the River not far from the spot Mr O'Brien was standing in the video, two weeks later.
Mr O'Brien told gardai 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 gardai to take out for the refuse collectors. In her evidence last week, State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy said she could not rule it out as the murder weapon.
Gardai also questioned Mr O'Brien on why his DNA had been found on the wheel cover from the boot of Meg's Toyota Charisma. Inspector Hunt told Mr Buckley that the DNA was found on the surface revealed when a blood stained portion had been cut away. He said that the only way Mr O'Brien's DNA could have got onto this surface was after it had been cut since it would not have been accessible until then.
Mr O'Brien told gardai he could not have been seen by a witness acting suspiciously near where the cut away section of the spare wheel cover and a cut away section of a mat, also from Meg's car, had been found. He said he did not know the witness and he had not disposed of the bloodstained pieces.
He admitted to gardai that he had washed his work trousers that week but had not boil washed them to get any blood stains out. He said he used the washing machine in the house to wash the duvet cover at 40 degrees. He told gardai that the dial must have landed at the 90 degree mark it was found pointing to when the cycle had finished.
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Barry White and the jury of seven men and five women.