The injuries to Bobby Ryan's body were not caused by debris falling on the skeleton when gardaí removed the concrete lid covering the tank in which the body was found, a senior garda has told the Central Criminal Court.

A Monaghan man charged with raping an 86-year-old woman in her home initially denied in garda interviews that he had ever been in the woman's home but later claimed to have helped a relative "power-wash" her house.

A garda fingerprint expert has said he couldn’t identify some marks found at the house where armed raiders took a family hostage in the €2.28 million "tiger kidnapping" four years ago.