GARDAI long suspected Michael Bambrick of being responsible for the death of his common law wife, Patricia McGauley, but did not connect him with the death of Mary Cummins until 1994.

The link between the deaths was not established until gardai decided to survey all the cases of missing women from the greater Dublin area during the investigation into the disappearance of the young American woman, Annie McCarrick, in 1993.

As part of the McCarrick investigation, gardai widened their examination of cases of missing women in Dublin to see if there were similarities and if there was a serial killer of women loose in the city.

As a result, Michael Bambrick was identified as a common denominator between Patricia McGauley and Mary Cummins.

Bambrick was suspected of killing Patricia McGauley, his common law wife, who disappeared from their home at 57 St Ronan's Park, Clondalkin, on September 12th, 1991, never to be seen again.

Bambrick told gardai Patricia had simply left to go to her mother's house in Smithfield and had never reappeared.

There was considerable circumstantial evidence to suspect Bambrick, according to gardai, but no proof and no body. Patricia McGauley's disappearance remained simply a missing person case with no major investigation ever mounted.

She simply disappeared and Bambrick was left in control of their two children, Adrienne (13) and Louise (6), at the house in St Ronan's Park where Patricia McGauley died.

Bambrick was initially arrested in January, 1995, but denied any knowledge of what had happened to the two women.

Even though gardai made the connection between Bambrick and the suspicious disappearances of two women, and suspected their bodies were buried, possibly in his backyard, there was not adequate evidence to support a warrant for the search and excavation of 57 St Ronan's Park.

The excavation had to await Bambrick's departure from the house in April, 1995. Gardai obtained permission from Dublin Corporation and began excavating the back garden on April 12th, 1995.

For days, in good weather gardai dug up the back garden of the house with a miniature excavator. They used radar equipment to see if the interior floor space of the house had been disturbed. Forensic experts found a positive reaction for blood on the floorboards.

The investigation was upgraded and gardai with proven specialities in difficult murder investigations were brought in and based at station where Det Sgt John Melody, the arresting officer, told the Central Criminal Court last week that the lengthy investigation and statements from a number of people, including Bambrick's daughter, Adrienne a former girlfriend and from Bambrick himself had all led to his arrest.

Bambrick's former girlfriend, Ms Stella Mooney, who has had a child with him, made a statement to gardai on June 9th, 1995. She said he enjoyed tying her up and engaged in unusual sexual practices and dressed in women's clothing.

She said Bambrick had told her he killed a girl in Clondalkin but didn't, want to remember it because it was "too disgusting".

IT is understood that unrelated allegations against Bambrick also provided a lever in his interrogation by gardai. In a statement on June 24th, 1995, he admitted killing both women.

Bambrick told gardai he had been drinking with Patricia McGauley in September, 1991, and they returned that night to their home after collecting their children. He said they had an argument over cigarettes but things quietened down and they later went to bed and had sexual intercourse.

He said he tied Patricia's hands behind her back and stuffed tights in her mouth and tied the tights round her head. He said he heard her gasping for air and realised she was dead.

He also said there had been "a small bit of a struggle" before he tied Patricia's arms. He said she had been dozing off and shouted at him to stop. But he had her pinned down under him.

He said he panicked and the tights were so tight he had to go and get a scissors to cut them. He put the body in the box room and later dismembered it and put in into plastics bags. He disposed of it in nearby Balgaddy dump.

BAMBRICK, gardai believe, was constantly on the search for women and had a number of relationships before and during his common law marriage.

Mary Cummins was 39, a single mother, and lived at Nicholas Street in the Liberties with her daughter, Samantha.

On July 23th, the day she was killed, she went for a drink with friends in Carr's pub on Francis Street. While she was drinking, Samantha played outside with Patricia McGauley's daughter, Adrienne.

As far as gardai can establish, Mary Cummins and Michael Bambrick had never had any previous contact. They sat together in the pub and chatted and after friends of Mary Cummins had taken Samantha home visited a number of other pubs before returning to St Ronan's Park.

Bambrick initially told gardai that he and Mary Cummins had gone their separate ways after leaving Carr's pub. But he subsequently admitted that, she, had returned to his home with him.

He said that he had started touching her in the sitting room and tied her hands behind her back with a belt and put tights in her mouth.

In another interview, he said Mary Cummins had tried to "push him off" during their encounter but he added "I just knew at the time I couldn't stop. He heard her say something like. "You're choking me.

He said he dismembered her body later and buried it in a field at Balgaddy. "I don't know what came over me," he said.

In the statement to the Garda, he said he dismembered the bodies with a paper knife and junior hacksaw. When he tied the women up, he said. "I knew I could do what I wanted to." He said, he got enjoyment out of stuffing tights into their mouths.

On the morning in June, 1995, after Bambrick had admitted his part, in the deaths, he brought detectives to the site at Lynch's Lane, Balgaddy, beside Ronanstown, where he had buried the two women.

The excavation began the following day. The first set of remains, believed to be of Ms Cummins, were found on the Monday. The ground had been disturbed and overgrown in the intervening three years and it took another week before Ms McGauley's remains were recovered.

The bodies were identified from dental records and DNA as those of the two missing women. The remains were so decomposed the cause of death could not be identified.

Bambrick was brought before Kilmainham Court and charged with the murder of the two women. When he was arraigned at the Central Criminal Court on May 4th he denied the murders but pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Those pleas were accepted by the State.