The body of a teenage murder victim, Sylvia Fleming, was cut up with hacksaws before being buried at a building site, the High Court in Belfast heard yesterday. Her dismembered body was found last month in the foundations of a partially-built house in a new estate outside Omagh, Co Tyrone.
A 14-year-old girl accused of helping to dispose of the body applied for bail yesterday. A Crown lawyer said it was not alleged she took part in the murder but claimed that afterwards she washed the body to remove forensic evidence. "The body was then dismembered by the others who cut up the body using hacksaws," he said.
"The Crown says she was very much a part of what happened afterwards in removing suspicion from her co-accused." Mr Brian McCartney, barrister, said a man accused of the murder had an almost Rasputin-like influence over the girl. "There is a considerable age gap between them and it is accepted there was a degree of infatuation by the girl." Mr Justice Girvan made it a condition of her bail that she have no communication with her co-accused.
