Garda saw human leg after opening buried barrel

What was described as a "gruesome" discovery was made by gardaí who found the body of a 30-year-old woman buried in a barrel in Capoley, Portlaoise.

Sgt Liam Mulhall was giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court in the trial of a 25-year-old man charged with murdering a Laois woman.

Robert Corbet of Sheffield Cross, Co Laois, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Aoife Phelan, aged 30, between October 25 and November 7, 2012, but admitted to manslaughter earlier this week.

The court heard from Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, that Mr Corbet’s plea of manslaughter was not accepted by the DPP.

Sgt Mulhall confirmed that, on November 6, 2012, he had noted that something had been placed in the ground beside the accused man’s home.

An excavation took place prior to Sgt Mulhall’s return the following day.

“Garda Connell was driving a digger excavating that area. As we proceeded with the digger we came on several items that didn’t look to have been there for a long time: Broken blocks, tyres, lorry parts, bottles, cans, and old torn clothes.

“As we got down further we noted there was a half inch of plywood covered with gravel. It was hard to remove. As the digger removed that piece of plywood it seemed to interfere with a barrel underneath and I saw the top fly off it.

“I observed a blue barrel underneath this sheet of plywood. The inside of it was red. There was a band on the top of the barrel which had loosened off and when I went down for closer inspection I saw what appeared to be a ladies shoe and jeans. There was also black plastic. I moved back the jeans and I saw what looked like a human leg.”

Mother of the deceased, Betty Phelan told the court that concerns had first arisen on 26 of November when her daughter was not answering her phone.

“It [mobile] went straight to voicemail. On the 26 of October, no call came and I was very concerned at that stage. This was totally out of character for her.”

When asked if Ms Phelan had mentioned pregnancy, Mrs Phelan said she had and that she was “very happy”.

The trial continues.