Garda tells Limerick murder trial about body found 'face down' in a grave on rough ground

The court also hears that a gun was found nearby that had discharged a bullet found in Lee Slattery's right arm

The body of Lee Slattery was found on the grounds of Delmege House, known locally as the Dallies. 

The deceased 25-year-old at the centre of a Limerick murder trial was found in a grave on rough ground “face down in a crouched position, knees bent”, a witness told the judge and jury on Monday.

Retired Detective Sergeant Shane Curran who was part of the investigation back in May 2010 gave evidence in the trial of 32-year-old Kurt Ryan of Moylish Crescent, Limerick, who denies murdering 25-year-old Lee Slattery on the grounds of Delmege House, known locally as the Dallies. 

He is on trial before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of seven women and five men at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.

Family members of the late Lee Slattery alerted gardaí when they found what looked like a grave, with loose earth and sods and some brambles spread over that. 

Shane Curran was one of the detectives who arrived as the area was cordoned off as a crime scene. He described how the grave was carefully excavated, uncovering the body of the young man face down in the manner described.

He said that one of the gardaí in the search of the wider area alerted him to an item concealed in a sock, close to the roof of a disused out-building: “The sock contained a semi-automatic pistol… a nine-millimetre Star model semi-automatic pistol.” 

He explained to the jury the difference between an automatic and semi-automatic pistol, in terms of one pull on the trigger discharging a number of bullets from the magazine of an automatic but that a semi-automatic had in common the fact that the bullets from the magazine were automatically replaced in the chamber but that it took a separate pull on the trigger to discharge each bullet. 

He said the gun found in the out-building was a semi-automatic with the serial number drilled off and it was in good condition. He said there was no ammunition in it when it was found.

Retired state pathologist, Prof. Marie Cassidy, carried out the post-mortem and she handed the detective a bullet which she recovered from the right arm of Lee Slattery.

From examining the particular striations in the gun barrel and the markings on this recovered bullet “I can be satisfied that this gun discharged that bullet,” he said.

During the trial this afternoon, prosecution senior counsel Michael O’Higgins referred to this 2010 killing being reopened by a cold case unit in 2021.

Earlier in the day, witness James Ryan, a middle-aged man living at Cosgrave Park said he went out of his house at some time on May 27, 2010, when he heard shouting and roaring outside. 

He saw the late Lee Slattery and another person sitting on a neighbour’s wall when a car pulled up and he heard Kurt Ryan saying to Lee Slattery: “Get the f*** up the road.” He said the car with Kurt Ryan then sped off, and “young Slattery went up the road towards the church.” 

The trial continues.