A garda fingerprints expert has told a murder trial that he found it "unusual" to see a £20 note near a murdered woman in a bedroom that appeared to have been burgled.
Det Garda John O'Neill said that the money was one of the first items he saw in the room and he was surprised to see it there.
He told the Central Criminal Court that money was normally the most sought after find for burglars.
He also said that he discovered the fingerprints of the accused man, Mr Paul O'Donohoe, on a work reference in the house. He found unidentified fingerprints on the same sheet of paper.
He said he found unidentified prints on a glass above Ms Miriam O'Donohoe's bed and found Mr Paul O'Donohoe's fingerprints on a bottle of vodka in a kitchen press.
The garda was giving evidence yesterday on the 11th day of the trial of Mr O'Donohoe (44), of Aberdeen Street, Dublin, who denies the murder or manslaughter of his 42-year-old estranged wife, Miriam, at her home in Ashfield Gardens, Mulhuddart, on January 25th, 1997.
Prosecutors allege that Mr O'Donohoe murdered Ms O'Donohoe and then threw objects around her house to make it appear as if a burglar had killed her.
Det Garda O'Neill said that he found the £20 note near a satchel in the room and he might have found it after he lifted up the satchel.
He said that none of the windows in the house had been forced open and he found no fingerprints on them. This suggested that nobody with bare hands had climbed through any of the windows.
He also took samples from the taps in the bathroom "as a long shot" and found no fingerprints on them either.
Det Garda O'Neill agreed with Mr Hugh Harnett SC, defending, that there was another unidentified fingerprint mark on the glass found in Ms O'Donohoe's bedroom. Asked why information on this fingerprint was not included in his written statement, Det Garda O'Neill said that he had disclosed the existence of the fingerprint to an expert employed by Mr O'Donohoe's defence team.
He said the fingerprint did not "clear" and did not have 12 identifiable "characters" that would make it permissible evidence in an Irish court.
He had checked the fingerprint against 175 people whose fingerprints were examined during the investigation and also against the Garda national fingerprint records.
Garda Andrew Haran told the court that it took him one hour and five minutes to cycle a 13.2 mile round-trip from Paul O'Donohoe's home in Aberdeen Street to Miriam O'Donohoe's home in Mulhuddart.
Mr Michael Durack SC, prosecuting, had earlier told the jury it was the State's case that Mr O'Donohoe cycled to his wife's house before strangling her in her bedroom.
Garda Haran told Mr Durack that he cycled on the main road through the Phoenix Park into Castleknock, Blanchardstown and Mulhuddart before cycling back again.