Interrogation video shown at Cork murder trial

Video recordings of the interrogation of a Cork man accused of murder were shown to a murder trial jury at the Central Criminal court today.

Wearing a navy and white t-shirt the then 18-year-old Mr Thomas Penkert kept his head down and murmured most of his replies to detectives questions in a tiny interview room.

When asked if a black-handled knife was used on murdered woman Ms Nora Kiely, Mr Penkert mumbled "yes".

"He tried to slit her wrists, Brian Walsh," he said. "He tried to slit her throat," he added.

When asked if the attempt was successful, Mr Penkert replied "no, the knife was too blunt".

Mr Brian Walsh (aged 24) and Mr Penkert (aged 20) have been charged with the murder of Ms Nora Kiely (aged 46) at her flat in Leitrim St., Cork city on July 15, 2002.

They have both pleaded not guilty to the murder charge but pleaded guilty to the theft of less than €20 in cash and two items of jewellery from Ms Kiely on that date.

"He stuck the small knife into her right leg, no blood came out so that's when I knew she was dead. He tried a knife in her stomach stomach but it just bounced," Mr Penkert was heard saying on video.

He saw "yellow stuff" coming out of Ms Kiely's mouth, became nauseous and left her flat :"I went up to my flat, I was throwing up."

Mr Penkert then returned to join Mr Walsh in Ms Kiely's flat.

When detectives asked Mr Penkert why at that stage he didn't just leave the house or tell other tenants of the building at Leitrim St, he replied: "Because I was scared, and also he had my disability book. I was scared I'd get it too."

He denied that the real reason he went back into the flat where Ms Kiely was killed was because he was a full participant in what was going on.

"No, that's not true," Penkert said in the interview room.

Relatives of Ms Kiely from Cork were present in court for today's proceedings.

The trial continues next week before Mr Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan and a jury of six men and six women.