I saw my father having sex with Melissa, says daughter

THE 18-year-old daughter of the Sligo man accused of murdering 14-year-old Melissa Mahon has told a jury she saw her fatherhaving sex with the girl.

She said: “I seen them in Dad’s bedroom having sex.” She said the door had been left open. Asked if she said anything, she replied: “What can you say? I was disgusted.”

Samantha Conroy was cross-examined by defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC via video link on day nine of the Central Criminal Court trial.

She earlier said she had witnessed her father on a bed with Melissa with his arm around her neck before he tied her into a sleeping bag and dumped her body into a river. She said she did not tell anyone what had happened for a year-and-a-half because she was petrified and believed she would be jailed as an accessory to murder.

Ronald McManus, 44, also known as Ronnie Dunbar, of Rathbraughan Park, Sligo, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the schoolgirl in September 2006 and to threatening to kill Samantha.

Ms Conroy agreed with Mr Grehan that, when she said she walked into her father’s bedroom on the day Melissa died and saw him on a double bed with her, she did not see him do any violence to the girl and had thought he was giving her a hug.

She also accepted her younger sister had given gardaí several different accounts of what had happened to Melissa. Ms Conroy said her younger sister had been told by the accused to blame Samantha.

Asked if Melissa was considered to be part of her family, Ms Conroy said: “She was actually Dad’s girlfriend” and “I was actually in the house when they were doing it... I saw them in Dad’s bedroom having sex.”

She said Melissa had already told her she was having a relationship with the accused and her father had admitted it to her.

Mr Grehan suggested her claims about witnessing sex or her father admitting to a sexual relationship “simply never happened” and “beggars belief”. She replied: “He’s the sort of man who would”. In relation to the evening on which the witness said Melissa was killed, Ms Conroy told Mr Grehan that no words were exchanged between her, her father and her younger sister.

She agreed she did not see marks on Melissa’s neck, or any other injury.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of six men and six women.