Teen denied woman's murder, court hears

A Kilkenny teenager accused of murder allegedly said: "I didn’t do it, you are not going to make me say I did it" when he was arrested by gardaí in connection with the murder of a 36-year-old mother of three.

Detective Sergeant Liam Maher told the Central Criminal Court that Mark Costigan, aged 18, was arrested on New Year’s Eve 2002 in connection with the murder of Christine Quinn.

Mr Costigan, with an address in Aylesbury, Kilkenny City, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mrs Quinn at her home in the city two years ago.

The court heard that the victim’s teenage son found her badly-beaten and partially burnt body on December 5, 2002 at their home on Greenfields Road in Kilkenny.

Yesterday Det. Sgt Maher told the jury that during the first interview with gardaí on December 31 2002, Mr Costigan said he "used to be" "best mates" with Mrs Quinn’s son, Ronan.

Mr Costigan said they used to go the greyhound track together and stay over in each other houses.

The accused and the deceased son fell out sometime after September 2001, Mr Costigan told gardaí.

Mr Costigan told gardaí on New Year’s Eve 2002 that he wouldn’t be have been welcome in the Quinn home.

The accused had his right hand bandaged the day after the alleged murder telling gardaí that he hurt it using a "Jigsaw" in construction studies class.

Det. Sgt Maher told the jury of six men and six women that he told the accused on December 20, 2002 that his teachers’ had "no record" of him cutting his hand on a saw in school.

"He made a glib comment about the school and said Mr Tierney is not always in class. He said it happened when the teacher was out of the class", Det. Sgt Maher said.

The detective told the jury that when Mr Costigan took off his bandage he was "shocked at the severity of the injury". His finger was "still oozing blood", Det. Sgt Maher said.

James Tierney, construction studies teacher with Kilkenny vocational school told the jury the accused "never brought to his attention that he cut his hand on the saw".

Mr Tierney said he controlled the power source for all the electrical saws and if he ever left the room during class he would "undo the key in the power switch".

The construction studies teacher who taught the accused in class 5 JS said Mark Costigan’s class were not using saws in the first term. "We were doing theory work in the first term of school", Mr Tierney said.

A 19-year-old school friend of the accused, Mr Patrick Dunne, told gardaí in his statement that he was with Mr Costigan and his cousin the day before the murder.

The three teenagers had gone into Argos on Kilkenny’s main street for job application forms on April 4, 2002 at around 1pm.

Mr Dunne told the jury that he had "put the wrong date" on his statement saying he was with the accused on the day of the murder, December 5, 2002 and not on the day he had said in his statement to gardaí.

Mr Alex Owens SC suggested to Mr Dunne that he went to Argos with the accused on April 4 and not the day after. The prosecution counsel said this was "a cock and bull explanation".

Mr Dunne agreed with Mr Owens SC that he knew December 5, 2002 was the day of the murder and that this was "vital new evidence".

The 19-year-old friend of the accused told the jury that he had a conversation with Mr Costigan "when he was walking into court" before he gave evidence today.