A man who murdered a young German tourist in Co Meath today lost his appeal against his conviction.
Michael Murphy (43), from Drogheda, Co Louth, was sentenced to life for the murder of Bettina Poeschel between September 25th and October 17th, 2001.
At the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin today Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns dismissed Murphy's appeal.
However he said the court would like to set out its view that all Garda interviews with suspects should be recorded in future.
Murphy had made admissions on the day of his arrest in October 2001 in relation to the murder.
Murphy had sought leave to appeal his conviction on several grounds, including the explanation of DNA evidence to the jury in the trial and the failure of the postmortem exam to establish the cause of Ms Poeschel's death.
Mr Justice Kearns devoted the largest section of his judgment to the failure by gardaí to record their interview with Murphy in October 2001. According to the memo of interview Murphy broke down sobbing with his head in his hands and said: "Just tell that girl's parents I'm sorry for taking her life and what I did to her, I'm so, so, sorry."
Judge Kearns said the Court of Criminal Appeal had given the clearest of indication as far back as May 2002, that the failure to comply with the regulations to record interviews might affect the admissibility of confessions.
"In this case what we can only regard as unsatisfactory evidence was tendered by the prosecution to justify the non use of (video) equipment, which had been installed many months previously," he said.
He said the excuse that the chair in the interview room was facing the wrong way during Murphy's Garda interview was not a particularly good one and added that there was no adequate explanation for the failure to train the interviewing officers in the use of the video recording equipment.
Speaking outside the court, Supt Fergus Doggett said the Poeschel family in Germany would be notified immediately of the appeal result.
Murphy showed no emotion as he was taken away by gardaí to serve the remainder of his life sentence. He has a series of previous convictions including one for the murder of 64-year-old Catherine Carroll in 1982 in Drogheda.