Man charged in connection with Corcoran disappearance

A man was tonight charged in connection with the disappearance of a widow after a body was discovered in a rural woodland.

Oliver Hayes was accused of falsely imprisoning Anne Corcoran at her west Cork home as a forensic examination was being carried out on what is believed to be the woman’s remains.

Hayes (aged 49) of Clancool Terrace, Bandon, appeared before special sitting of Bandon District Court where he was granted legal aid.

No application was made for bail and the part-time painter and decorator was remanded in custody for a week.

The suspect is accused of holding the widow against her will on a date unknown between January 19 and 21.

Ms Corcoran vanished from her home on a small farm a few miles outside Bandon more than two weeks ago.

Detectives probing the 60-year-old’s disappearance arrested Hayes yesterday morning.

A body was recovered around 16kms from her address near Ballinspittle this morning.

It is understood it was buried in a shallow grave in an isolated woodland.

Up to 200 volunteers and civil defence members who had been involved in the largest search operation in the country in recent years called off their efforts after the body was found.

The woodland was cordoned off as pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster and forensic officers from the Garda Technical Bureau examined the scene and remains.

Ms Corcoran had lived alone at her farmhouse at Maulnaskimlehane, near Kilbrittain, since her husband Jerry died in 2007.

Detectives said the widow had not been seen since meeting a friend at the Speckled Door pub near the Old Head of Kinsale on January 18, although she did speak with a friend by phone the next day.

Ms Corcoran’s green Peugeot 206 was later found near a stream in Oldcastle, just outside Bandon, last Wednesday.

It is understood two other vehicles have been seized by detectives as part of their investigation.