Victim had sought cash on day he disappeared

THE victim in a murder trial was looking for €600 or €700 – possibly for drugs – on the day he disappeared, his mother and father have told the jury.

Gillian Purcell, aged 34, of Simon, Anderson’s Quay, Cork, and formerly of Hollyhill, Cork, and John Walsh, aged 45, of Cork Street, Mitchelstown, both deny the charge of murdering John McManus on a date unknown between October 28 and November 7, 2008, at flat 1, 3 Verdon Place, Wellington Road, Cork.

Father of the deceased, Pat McManus, said in his statement to gardaí investigating his son’s death: “I knew it was money for drugs he was looking for. That is why I didn’t give it to him.”