Woman was told she was pregnant on day she vanished

A Mayo woman who has been missing since December 2000 had a positive pregnancy test confirmed by her GP on the day she disappeared, the Central Criminal Court has been told.

On the opening day of the trial of Martin Earley aged 49, of Banagher, Carrowmore Lacken, Ballina, who denies murder, Denis Vaughan Buckley, for the prosecution, told a jury that although the body of Sandra Collins, 28, had never been found, circumstantial evidence was that she had been murdered.

Counsel further told the jury that there would be ample evidence for them to come to a conclusion that the accused was guilty of murder.