'You learn to shut your feelings down': The anthropologist who exhumed Clarissa McCarthy

Dealing with dead bodies for a living is not your average job. But for Dr René Gapert, exhuming the body of the little girl so close in age to his own daughter, was his most daunting task yet

René Gapert (pictured), a German-born forensic anthropologist at his firm Human Remains Services Ireland, oversaw the removal of Clarissa McCarthy's body from the coffin which she shared with her father, Martin.

A few weeks ago, Dr René Gapert had an appointment in West Cork on what was a Bank Holiday weekend.

As he rarely gets away with his wife Alison and daughter Muireann, he brought them along and they booked a few nights in a hotel in Clonakilty, arriving on a balmy summer Thursday evening in early June.