Crerar jury hears first mention of DNA

The garda detective who arrested former army sergeant John Crerar for the 1979 murder of Kildare woman Phyllis Murphy has a told a jury that he had arrested Mr Crerar because DNA evidence positively linked him to Ms Murphy.

John Crerar (aged 54), a father-of-five of Woodside Park, Kildare, has denied the murder of Philomena Murphy (aged 23), who was known as Phyllis, on a date unknown between 22 December 1979 and January 18 1980 within the state. At the time of her death, Phyllis Murphy was living in digs in Rathangan, Co. Kildare.

Detective Garda Mark Carroll told the Central Criminal Court trial of Mr Crerar that he arrested him at 7.25am on the morning of July 13 1999 at the Seisuin stud, Co Kildare on suspicion of murder.

When he took him to Naas Garda station, arriving at 7:45am, he informed the member in charge garda Ian Lacky of the arrest. "I informed garda Lacky that I was in possession of information that positively linked John Crerar to Phyllis Murphy, ie, DNA evidence" the detective said.

He said he also informed the member in charge that John Crerar had given false information about his whereabouts on the night of December 22 1979 and had also sought to give an alibi for that night.

Earlier today, the jury heard from Detective Sergeant Brendan McArdle of the Ballistics Section at Garda headquarters that in January 1998, he learnt of the results of fresh analysis on swabs taken from the body of Phyllis Murphy from Dr Maureen Smyth of the Forensic Science Laboratory.

Det Sgt McArdle said he later travelled to a forensic science laboratory in Abingdon, England, on two occasions in 1998 and 1999 to hand over the swabs and a total of 49 blood stain samples for analysis.

The case continues before Mr Justice McKechnie.