Witness at murder trial 'heard wailing near ruin'

A witness has told a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court that she heard a wailing sound as she passed a ruin in a Co Cork park, near to where the strangled body of 22-year-old beautician Rachel Kiely was found.

Niamh Cotter was giving evidence in the trial of a 22-year-old accused who has denied murdering and raping Ms Kiely at the Regional Park in Ballincollig on October 26, 2000, when he was 16 years old, but pleaded guilty to her manslaughter.

Ms Cotter, who said she now preferred to be known by her married name, Mrs Maher, said she was walking with her two dogs in the Regional Park and met the accused as she took them off the leash.

She said they continued along the same path and were engaged in “just chit-chat for a couple of minutes. I went my way and he went his.”

She knew the accused as she had previously babysat him. Mrs Maher said she was heading back out of the park because of bad weather when she passed a derelict house.

Asked by Mr Patrick J McCarthy SC how her dogs had behaved at this point she said: “The younger pup started acting like there was somebody inside the house. He started going to and from the door.”

When she called him she said he came back. The witness then said that as she was walking away she heard a noise behind her.

She said there were usually kids hanging around there “messing” so she didn’t bother turning around and just kept going.

Asked what this sound was like she said: “It was like wailing or something. I didn’t hear spoken language but it was definitely a human noise.”

She said it was probably around 5.30pm when she passed the building. Asked by Mr Brendan Grehan SC, defending, whether the noises suggested there was more than one person there, Mrs Maher replied: “I wasn’t really sure if it was directed at me.”

She thought it could have been someone “taking the p***”. She thought the noise could have been made by a gang of 16-year-olds, who would normally be around there.

Another witness Luke Mansfield said the accused, a friend of his, had told him a few days after the killing that he had left a bottle of cola, which he had been drinking with his girlfriend, near the scene .

“He said he was drinking down there two weeks prior to the incident and had left a bottle of Coke that was half full down there.

"He was worried the guards might find the bottle of Coke and see a fingerprint on it or something.”

The witness agreed with Mr Grehan he had not told gardaí the bottle was half full. “I didn’t think they had finished drinking it.

"They were drinking vodka down there so they must have been mixing it with the Coke.” The final witness in today’s hearing was Detective Sergeant Larry O’Brien, who confirmed to the prosecution that the accused had attended Ms Kiely’s funeral on October 31.

“Yes, he was one of the mourners at the funeral,” he said. The trial will continue on Monday before Mr Justice Barry White.