A CAR key given to gardaí by a Waterford man on trial for the murder of his wife was not a spare, as he had claimed before a Central Criminal Court jury, according to evidence yesterday.
Bus driver John O’Brien (41), Ballinakill Downs, Co Waterford, denies murdering Meg Walsh (35) on a date between October 1st, 2006 and October 15th, 2006.
Robert Ashworth, an expert locksmith, told Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, that the key Mr O’Brien gave gardaí as the spare key of Ms Walsh’s Mitsubishi Carisma had been used more often and more recently than a second key also found at the house.
In interviews with gardaí Mr O’Brien said that his wife’s car had only two keys “as far as he knew” and the key that he had provided, with a remote control fob, was the spare key. “It was in the pint jug in the press over the work top. That’s where we keep the spare keys for the car.” He agreed that whoever had abandoned Ms Walsh’s car in the car park of the Uluru pub had her keys. The jury has already seen CCTV footage which the prosecution says shows the car being locked with a remote control fob. The indicator lights can be seen flashing twice.
Mr Ashworth told Mr McGinn that, in his estimation, the fobbed key had 45,000 miles of use, going from the car’s 60,000 total mileage. He showed the jury photographs which showed that the blade of the key was clean, indicating more recent use.
A second key, found on a telephone table during a Garda search of the house, was dirtier, indicating it had not been used for at least three months. Mr Ashworth said that this key would have had only about 15,000 miles of usage, suggesting that the fobbed key was definitely the main car key.
It is the State’s case that whoever used the fobbed key to lock the car had murdered Ms Walsh.
Mr Ashworth told defence counsel Paddy McCarthy SC his suggested mileage for the keys was guess work and agreed that he could have been wrong.
The jury also heard from Michael Whelan, fleet manager for Hertz car hire, who told Mr McGinn that the Mitsubishi Carisma had been a rental car before Ms Walsh purchased it in 2002. When the car was sold to her it had 34,800 miles on the clock.
The jury heard that when the car was used as a rental car only the plain key was provided. The fobbed key was kept in storage by the garage. Mr Ashworth agreed with Mr McCarthy that this would mean his mileage figures could be wrong.
Various members of staff from Boland’s Garage, which had owned the car while it was a rental model and sold it on to Ms Walsh, told the court that no extra key had been ordered through the garage.
Noel Bailey, from Mitsubishi Motors Ireland, told Mr McGinn that Mitsubishi cars were issued with two keys and one remote control fob. Extra keys could be ordered but needed to be electronically married to the car and the original keys remarried – otherwise the original keys would cease to work.
Mr Ashworth said that a locksmith wishing to clone a spare key for the Mitsubishi would have to get a specialist piece of equipment to electronically marry the keys to the car. He said it had taken him two months and many security checks to get such equipment and this was common practice, “otherwise you would have every thief in the country ringing up and buying one”. The jury also heard from Inspector John Hunt, who told Mr McCarthy that he had not embarked on an “emotional blitz on the jury” in his primary evidence yesterday.
In relation to CCTV footage which the State says shows Mr O’Brien standing not far from the spot where his wife’s body would be pulled out of the river Suir two weeks later, at the time he had told gardaí he was having his last conversation with her at home, Insp Hunt agreed that there was no evidence that Mr O’Brien’s car had been on the quay after 5.32 on Sunday, October 1st.
Mr O’Brien told gardaí that he had spent that afternoon in Tramore reading the Sunday papers. He said he had driven straight home and talked to Ms Walsh at about 5pm.
Insp Hunt told Mr McCarthy that mobile phone evidence would show Mr O’Brien in the area where Ms Walsh’s car was abandoned at about the time it was abandoned. He said he was not simply sticking to a theory. “It’s not a thesis that I am doing. These are pieces of evidence.”