Jury see CCTV footage around time of Meg Walsh's death

The jury in the trial of a Waterford man accused of murdering his wife have been watching a video timeline of the days surrounding his wife’s disappearance.

35-year-old Meg Walsh’s body was recovered from the River Suir on October 15, 2006, after being missing for two weeks. She had died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Her husband, bus driver Mr O’Brien (aged 41) with an address in Ballinakill Downs, Co Waterford denies murdering her on a date between October 1, 2006 and October 15, 2006.

Mr Ian McArthur, a CCTV expert, told Mr Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, that gardaí used over 20 separate distinguishing features to identify both Ms Walsh’s silver Mitsubishi Charisma and Mr O’Brien’s Mazda 323.

In the video compilation, the jury saw a black Mazda closely resembling Mr O’Brien’s car heading out of Waterford at 4.13pm on Sunday October 1.

At 5.25pm the car is seen travelling back towards the city, then at 5.35pm it stops near the River Suir and the driver, identified by gardaí as Mr O’Brien, gets out and walks over to the river for some minutes before returning to the car.

At 8.55pm the same evening, a silver Mitsubishi Charisma resembling the one belonging to Meg Walsh is seen driving towards Waterford city.

At 12.52am on Monday October 2, a silver Charisma is seen heading away from the quays, passing out towards the Dunmore Road at 1.03am.

Later that morning at 9.24am, a dark colour Mazda 323 is seen heading towards Waterford. A dark Mazda 323 is seen again at 2.55pm also heading towards Waterford.

At 8.32pm, a Mazda is seen at the Tesco petrol station near to the car park Mr O’Brien says he parked in that evening when he went looking for his wife’s car.

At 10.03pm that evening, a silver Charisma is seen parking in the car park of the Uluru Pub. The jury have already heard that this car was found by gardaí two days later and was found to be covered in Meg Walsh’s blood.

Mr McArthur also showed the jury comparison footage showing shots of the two cars being merged with sections of the CCTV footage to highlight the similarities. He said that in some of the footage it was not possible to see unique features such as stickers on the windscreen.

“I am purely looking at the pattern of the vehicle, the fingerprint of the vehicle if you like.”

He agreed with defence counsel Mr Paddy McCarthy that it was not possible to see the face of the driver or the licence plate of a vehicle in this footage and that it was only possible to say that the car was a Mitsubishi Charisma.

Mr Justice Barry White said that “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck, or in this case a Charisma".

But Mr McArthur said he could not tell Mr McCarthy “whose duck it was.”

The trial continues on Monday before Mr Justice White and the jury of seven men and five women.