The mystery deaths and Thomas Ruttle and Julia Holmes and the bizarre circumstances in which their bodies were found in a house in West Limerick will unfold at a hearing later this month.

A mother charged with the murder of her son in Co Cork could not be brought to court as she was medically unfit.

A court last night ordered that a mother charged with the murder of her son should be examined by a forensic psychiatrist at the female wing of Mountjoy prison.

STUMBLING blocks have been encountered in the huge investigation into the murders of a mother, her two children and a family friend in Newcastle West, a court heard yesterday.

THE man charged with the murders of a young mother, her two children and a family friend has been moved to the Central Criminal Hospital, it emerged yesterday.