Shortly after an ambulance arrived at the scene where a 22-year-old woman was found lying in dense undergrowth in a park in Co Cork an 18-year-old local man told three of his neighbours the woman had been "beaten and raped".

A series of "jigsaw pieces" will prove beyond reasonable doubt that an 18-year-old man accused of the rape and murder of a young woman in Cork is guilty, a prosecuting lawyer told a jury at the Central Criminal Court today.