Garda joked with accused over shovel

A GARDA spotted a shovel in a car and jokingly asked the driver if it was for burying a body — the driver is now on trial for murder.

Garda Daniel O’Connor did not realise until he returned to the same scene hours later that the victim’s body was on marshy ground over a ditch.

Garda O’Connor saw a black Opel Astra on the road at Ardcullen, Ballyduff, Co Kerry, on November 6, 2008, with Gillian Purcell in the passenger seat and John Walsh at the side of the car.