A forensic scientist told a murder trial jury yesterday that a mark on lino in a house where two women were killed 18 years ago was likely to have been made by a Caterpillar brand boot.

The DNA of two men on trial for murdering a French musician in Wicklow in 2009, matched DNA found on a shotgun cartridge and clothes recovered by Gardaí in the aftermath of the fatal shooting.

A state inquiry into institutional and clerical child abuse in the North is almost inevitable, government sources said tonight.

A SUSPECTED explosive found on a telecoms mast in Co Donegal was made from fireworks and DIY materials, a forensics expert told the Morris Tribunal into garda corruption yesterday.

A Louth labourer accused of the murder of German journalist Bettina Poeschel did not have his 10am break with his co-workers on the day of her disappearance, three Latvian men told the Central Criminal Court today.