IF ever there was a compelling case for beefing up Garda forensic resources, it was demonstrated

A former Irish Army sergeant is today beginning a life sentence - for a murder committed nearly 23 years ago.

The jury has retired to consider a verdict in the case of 54-year-old army sergeant John Crerar, who denies the murder of Kildare woman, Phyllis Murphy, almost 23 years ago.

The risk of a chance match or a mistake in the DNA evidence against accused man John Crerar is too high to rely on it to convict him of murder, his lawyer told a jury today.

The former army sergeant accused of murdering Kildare woman Phyllis Murphy almost 23 years ago has told his trial jury that it is "absolutely impossible" that there is a DNA match between his blood and semen found in her body.

Two former co-workers of murder accused John Crerar told his trial that they saw him washing out the boot of his car with boiling water days after the disappearance of Kildare woman, Phyllis Murphy, over 22 years ago.

A former member of the defence forces who worked as a security guard with John Crerar on the night Kildare woman Phyllis Murphy disappeared has told a jury he lied to gardai when he provided an alibi for Mr Crerar back in 1980.

The garda detective who arrested former army sergeant John Crerar for the 1979 murder of Kildare woman Phyllis Murphy has a told a jury that he had arrested Mr Crerar because DNA evidence positively linked him to Ms Murphy.

Blood and semen samples that the DPP alleges link former army sergeant John Crerar to the murder of Kildare woman, Phyllis Murphy, remained in Garda lockers for 17 years, a jury has heard.

The former army sergeant on trial for the murder of Kildare woman Phyllis Murphy over 22 years ago told gardai he could not remember ever speaking to her.