Deadly carbon monoxide gases can mimic bugs such as the common cold or flu, a pathologist said yesterday.

A plumber incorrectly converted a gas boiler leaving it spewing out lethal quantities of carbon monoxide causing the death of a woman staying at the Trident hotel in Kinsale in January 2011, it was claimed by the prosecution at the opening of a trial yesterday.

The Kinsale hen party that ended with the death of a woman by gas poisoning in a hotel room was recalled for a judge and jury yesterday as a plumber who adjusted the gas boiler days earlier went on trial for manslaughter.