Man accused of Frankie Dunne murder told waitress 'I killed someone', Cork trial hears

Tanja Bosnjak told the court that Ionut Cosmin Nichoclescu said "he may have cut off his head or something like that".

Ionut Cosmin Nichoclescu (pictured) had been described previously by today's witness as very slight and that if one saw him from behind he looked like someone aged 14 or 15. File picture: Cork Courts Limited

A waitress spoke on Monday about the man on trial for murder on Boreenmanna Road in December 2019 laughing and telling her “I killed someone” and later adding that he may have cut off the man’s head.

Tanja Bosnjak gave evidence through an interpreter by video link from Croatia to the trial before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of eight women and four men at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.

She was working in the Silver Key bar and restaurant in Cork on December 29, 2019, and was on a break at around lunchtime when the man she knew as Johnny – an assistant chef at the premises – approached her table.

Through an interpreter she said: “He told me he wants to tell me a secret. I was eating. I said, ‘OK Johnny, what do you want?’ He said, ‘I killed someone’. 

“To me in the first moment it sounded ridiculous and I told him, ‘Johnny, I am eating right now’. He said he had killed someone. I said, ‘OK, when did this happen?’ He said, ‘two days ago… it happened two days previous.’ 

“I asked him if he would stop talking such nonsense… I asked him to say how he did it. 

He said he may have cut off his head or something like that. I told him to stop talking such nonsense. The entire time he was laughing and it looked like a joke.

They were speaking in English during this conversation. She found it upsetting. She said others in the bar were talking about news of a body being found at Boreenmanna Road and she thought that maybe Johnny, the name by which Ionut Cosmin Nicholescu was known in work, had been making a joke about this. “I noticed he was in a good mood and socialising with other employees,” she said.

Later in the day on her second break she said: “I asked him if he was joking or if he really did it?... He said he was joking, he had been joking. I told him not to joke like that, it is in poor taste.

“He asked me if my opinion of him had changed after that. I said, no, but not to joke like that anymore.” 

Defence senior counsel Philipp Rahn asked the witness if she recalled describing to the gardaí the accused man as very slight and that if one saw him from behind he looked like someone aged 14 or 15. Ms Bosnjak agreed she did say that. She also recalled describing him as a very nice person as far as she was concerned.

Mr Rahn said: “Some of the other kitchen staff were making fun of him for being gay, for example.” She said she did not know about that but remembered “them making fun of him saying in a derogatory way that he was from Romania and that he was a gypsy.” 

Mr Rahn asked her if she thought that during the first conversation that Johnny was trying to shock her or impress her. She replied: “I don’t like those kind of stories and it did not impress me". She later added that she did tell gardaí later that she was sure he did not do it and that he was making a joke.” 

The remains of Frankie Dunne (pictured) were found in a garden on Boreenmanna Road. File picture

In her last answer, she recalled Johnny saying in their second conversation on Sunday, December 29, 2019 that he did not do it, adding: “But I do not know if that is the truth or not.” 

Ionut Cosmin Nicholescu, 30, with an address at Branistea Village, Damovita County, Romania, is on trial charged with the murder of 64-year-old Francis (Frankie) Dunne between Friday, December 27, and Saturday, December 28, 2019, at Castlegreine House, Boreenamanna Road, Cork.

Chief Superintendent Vincent O’Sullivan testified today that he became aware that on Monday, December 30, 2019 the accused had travelled by a flight from Belfast to Edinburgh and he asked for the accused to be notified in the airport that he wanted to speak to him. At 7pm he got a call from the accused and this call was recorded.

He first asked him if he ever stayed at the derelict house at Boreenmanna Road where the remains of Mr Dunne were found. The chief superintendent told Ionut Cosmin Nicholescu that this property was close to a house where the defendant’s ex-boyfriend lived. He replied that he didn’t ever stay there.

Explaining that the questions related to the death of Francis Dunne, the defendant replied on the phone call which was played to the jury, “What is Francis Dunne? Is that his name? I don’t know him. Why should I know him? What problem I have with this guy? Is he dead, yeah?” 

The defendant said he would not give fingerprints or DNA when it was explained that at that time he was not obliged to provide them.

He said to the Detective Superintendent: “Don’t try to f*** me up in it.” 

Det. Supt. O’Sullivan said: “I am just trying to get to the truth of it.” The defendant said: “I am not a drug dealer or something. Why are you landing this on top of me. Do you think I am some kind of gypsy?” 

The detective replied on the phone call: “No, I don’t think that. I think you were staying in the house where the man was killed. I have a duty to rule you in or out. I am not trying to embarrass you or trick you.” 

There was some discussion about the defendant travelling back to Cork and possible arrangements to meet with the detective. January 3, 2020 was mentioned as a possible date. The defendant said: “I can take time off job if it is about serious shit.” 

At that stage he asked if it was OK to go on his connecting flight from Edinburgh to Bucharest and the detective told him it was and arrangements were made for the defendant to phone him again.

The trial resumes for its seventh day on March 21 with further recordings of phone calls between the defendant and Det Supt O’Sullivan.

Mr Dunne’s remains were found in a garden on Boreenmanna Road. He was decapitated and dismembered after his death, pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers, testified last week. She said the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the skull and neck compression.