Man jailed for life for murder of tourist

A 42-year-old Louth man has been found guilty of the murder of a young German woman in Co Meath in 2001 at the Central Criminal court today.

A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for almost six hours and returned a unanimous verdict against Mr Michael Murphy, of Rathmullen Park, Drogheda, Co Louth for the murder of 28-year-old Bettina Poeschel.

Mr Murphy sat emotionless in court and continued slowly chewing gum as the verdict was read out.

He was handed down a mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Aindrias O’Caoimh.

Speaking outside the Four Courts afterwards, Ms Poeschel’s father, Jorgen, accompanied by her younger sister Cornelia, said they were "relieved with the verdict".

"It made a closure of a bad chapter for my family" he said.

"I want to thank the gardaí for their investigations and support. I want also to thank the local community in Donore and Drogheda for their assistance and for the sympathy they have shown us during all this time".

Inspector Gerry O’Brien of Drogheda Garda station told reporters he was "delighted with the decision".

"A lot of people gave a lot of effort and we tried to reconstruct the events of the 25 September," he said.

"It was a terrible tragedy that a young girl like Bettina Poeschel came to this country to see the historic site of Newgrange and this happened - it was an opportunistic crime. This man killed in the past," he added.

Ms Poeschel disappeared on Tuesday 25 September 2001, the day before she was due to return home to her native Munich, Germany.

She was on a six-day trip to Ireland to visit an old school friend and had decided to visit the interpretative centre at Newgrange on her last day here.

She was last seen alive walking alone along the Donore Road towards Newgrange shortly after 11.30am that morning.

Murphy was working on the motorway construction site at Donore the same day.

The alarm was raised by her school friend Mr Holger Sirtl when she hadn’t returned to Dublin in time for her flight home on Wednesday 26 September 2001.

An extensive Garda investigation and search operation ensued and on 17 October the badly decomposed semi-naked remains of Ms Poeschel were found lying face down in dense undergrowth just off the Donore road.

During the four-week trial the jury heard evidence of two alleged admissions by Mr Murphy to gardaí relating to the murder.

He broke down sobbing and shaking after eight hours of questioning and told detectives "just tell that girls parents I’m sorry for taking her life and for what I did to her. I’m so, so sorry".

It also emerged in court that Mr Murphy confided to Inspector Gerry O’Brien a week after his arrest that he had returned to the body of Ms Poeschel several days after her death.

He had said: "Look, I went back to the body two or three days later. I took the red shoes and trousers and hid them in the skip in the graveyard in Donore, have you found them yet?"

A subsequent search of the graveyard at Donore found a skip with heavily mud-stained red shoes, black trousers and black socks, all belonging to Ms Poeschel.

Forensic tests on semen found on Ms Poeschel’s body revealed a matching DNA profile with Murphy.

"The DNA profile of the higher vaginal swabs showed the presence of profiles of more than one person. The major profile matched that of Michael Murphy," Dr Maureen Smyth told the court.

She estimated that the chances of someone else having the same DNA as Murphy as "less than one in a thousand million".

Several witnesses testified to seeing the deceased walking on the Donore road that day.

Ms Mary McCabe testified she saw Ms Poeschel walking along the road near the quarry at Donore.

"She was on her own. She had browny/blonde hair and she was wearing a mac jacket," Ms McCabe told the court.

"She had a shoulder bag and glasses. I was thinking she didn't have an umbrella with her and it was raining and I was thinking 'she'll get wet'," she said.

Ms Poeschel was last seen alive at 11.35am by local businessman Mr Kenneth Martin who claims to have seen her walking on the road heading towards Donore.

The victim's sister, Ms Cornelia Poeschel also testified in court that the last contact she had with her sister Bettina was through a text message sent on Sunday 23 September 2001.

"She said she was on a beach and that everything was OK," said Ms Poeschel.

"She was having a good time," she added.

Student Siobhan Byrne gave evidence that on the night of Tuesday 25 September she was sitting on a wall near the Mullachrone quarry with two friends when she noticed a black Honda Civic pull up outside a laneway, about 400 metres from where the body was eventually found.

"A lorry drove by and its lights shone on this figure which we presumed was a man from his build," she added.

"We saw a man going up into the laneway, he was running up it. Then we heard the car drive off in the Donore direction. We never saw it again," said Byrne.

Mr Pat McCahey testified that he had been working with the accused on the construction of the motorway at Donore on the day of Ms Poeschels' disappearance.

He told the court Mr Murphy "kept shooting off to see another man" about a pump.

"He could be away twenty minutes, half an hour or longer. He was away four or five times," he added.

"There was a particular time we were talking about dogs," Mr McCahey continued.

"Michael Murphy said to me he'd have to take some disinfectant, that that was going to be good stuff for cleaning out the kennels. He wanted it for the dogs. It was a container of some liquid that was a cleaning fluid in the toilets," he said.

Forensic tests on the black panties found on Bettina’s body revealed a "strong support that the smell was Jeyes Fluid," according to forensic expert Mr John McCullough.

Three Latvian men told the court that Murphy did not take his ten o’clock break with them as normal on 25 September.

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Rinalds Baumanis said Murphy "had to go in the city, around ten o'clock, he had to see the doctor".

Mr Baumanis said that Murphy spent "most of the time outside".

Earlier Drogheda GP, Dr Michael O'Brien, testified that Murphy attended his surgery on the 26 September 2001 for a back complaint.

"He complained about a pain in his back" he told the jury.

"He said he got it at work while bending down to tie his shoe laces," he added.

Mr Murphy has a string of previous convictions ranging from manslaughter, larceny, armed robbery to assault.

He was charged with the murder of Mrs Catherine Carroll on October 20 1983 - he strangled the 64-year-old widow while she was coming home from a whist drive. He was found guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced to twelve years in prison in 1984. He was released in 1992 after serving almost nine years.

Later convictions include armed robbery, and an assault on two women as they walked home from a late disco. Murphy grabbed the two girls by the neck and tried to pull them to the ground in Drogheda. He served six months for that attack.

Murphy was today handed down a mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Aindrias O’Caoimh.

Speaking after the verdict Mr Justice O’Caoimh said he hoped the unanimous verdict would bring "closure to what has undoubtedly been a difficult chapter in the lives of the Poeschel family".