'I'd rather die under a rock than go to prison,' Frankie Dunne murder accused told gardaí
Ionut Cosmin Nichoclescu has told gardaí that he had been living in the abandoned Castlegreine House since November 2019. File picture: Cork Courts Limited
The man accused of murder where a dismembered body was found in Cork told investigators by phone from Bucharest days later: “I don’t want to go to prison because of this. I would rather die under the f***ing rock. I did not kill the guy.”
Recordings of this and other phone calls were played at the trial before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of eight women and four men at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.
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, Boreenmanna Road, Cork.
Chief Superintendent Vincent O’Sullivan testified he got a number of phone calls from the accused man, some of them from Bucharest in the days after Mr Dunne’s remains were found.
The jury heard the contents of the calls where one commenced with the accused saying: “I am not coming back to Ireland. I am f***ed up. I am scared. I have been living in that house a month. What I want to tell you is I was working all the time. I am not a murderer or a bad guy.”
He clarified that he had been living in the abandoned Castlegreine House since November 2019. “I lived in the attic in the restaurant [Silver Key],” he also said.
“What happened with the dead guy is this. I was in Aldi the day it happened… I went to that f***ing house. When I opened the door I was drinking milk. I didn’t see anything kind of weird but after I locked the gate I walked towards the house. I heard some steps. Somebody was in behind me holding a big sword like a machete.
“He said to me to shut the f*** up. I didn’t know how to react. Because sometimes you do what they want, they leave you alone. I said 'I don’t want to die'. I said 'don’t hit me with the sword'. He said to me to come with him. If I do something he was going to bust my head.
“He said to me to go into a porch near the front door. On the porch there was someone there — a small guy, you understand me. The guy with the machete was there with a hipster beard. The other guy was kind of smaller, not as small as me. The second guy had a big knife, not small like a razor.
“I saw the guy when I looked on the ground. It was another guy with no pants. I saw some top clothes but no pants. It was my first time in the back yard. It is kind of a door in the wall.
Chief Supt O’Sulllivan asked on the phone call: “How did they cut the body?” The accused replied: “They f***ing cut it.”
Then asked: “What did they cut the body with?” he replied: “The guy with the knife. The other guy with the machete was behind me. They told me to put the parts in a black bag and to throw them in the bush. It is a big bush. I go there. They give me the head…
“They said f*** him in the bush — that means push him in the bush. I went into the bush.” He said the two men he described went away.
He said he had €6,000 cash which he could give to the family of “the dead guy”. “I don’t want to go to prison because of this. I would rather die under the f***ing rock. I did not kill the guy. I swear on my dick,” he said on one call.
He said the two men he described as being in the garden with the machete and the knife had very good English.
When the chief superintendent referred to the accused coming back to Cork, the accused said: “F*** off, you are going to f*** me in prison. I didn’t do it. All I do was carry the body to the bush.”
The chief superintendent said: “What you are telling me is very important.” Mr Nicholescu said: “It is f***ed up. I know how you work.
Chief Supt O’Sullivan said: “I am not lying.” The accused said, “Blah blah blah.”
“Why did you not come to the police on Friday night [December 27, 2019]?” he was1 asked and he replied, “Because they would f*** me up… Don’t tell you are a good guy now… I am scared because I don’t want to go to prison. I think something bad may happen me there. I do not in 100 years want to go to jail.”
The chief superintendent said: “The sooner you meet us the better.”
He replied. “I would meet you today but I am scared what you are going to do to me. I am afraid of you, I am afraid of you all. I swear on my dick I am not a bad guy.”
Chief Supt O’Sullivan said: “The sooner you come back the sooner we can verify that. Unfortunately, this man is dead. This is not going away… We can bring this to court.”
The accused replied: “F*** that. I am not going to court. I don’t want to go to jail for those idiots.”
Chief Supt O’Sullivan said: “I have to look for those two. I need your help — where they went after you put the body under the tree.”
The defendant said: “I was there with the body. I did not hear them after that. I was dragging the other party… I do not want to go to jail. I am innocent.”
The chief superintendent said: “If you are innocent the sooner we can prove that the better. I am being honest with you. I am trying to get to the truth of it.”
The accused said: “I want to ask you not to put me in the f***ing prison.”
Chief Supt O’Sullivan said: “I will do everything I can to establish the truth. I need to find out for Frankie’s family. This man should not have died. His family are very upset. We are trying to get to the truth. I am not here to f*** you up. I am here to get to the truth.”
At the end of one call, the chief superintendent said from Cork that he would ring the accused back to continue their conversation and arrange for the taking of a formal statement. The accused in Bucharest replied: “Okey dokey”.
The trial continues.
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