A 42-year-old Louth man was found guilty at the Central Criminal Court yesterday of the murder of a young German woman in Co Meath in 2001.
A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for almost six hours and returned a unanimous verdict against Michael Murphy, of Rathmullen Park, Drogheda, Co Louth, for the murder of 28-year-old Bettina Poeschel.
Mr Murphy showed no emotion in court and continued slowly chewing gum as the verdict was read out. He was given a mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Ó Caoimh.
Ms Poeschel disappeared on Tuesday, September 25th, 2001, the day before she was due to return home to Munich. She was on a six-day trip to Ireland to visit an old school friend and had decided to visit the interpretative centre at Newgrange on her last day here. She was last seen alive walking alone along the Donore Road towards Newgrange shortly after 11.30 a.m. that morning. Murphy was working on the motorway construction site at Donore the same day.
The alarm was raised by her school friend, Mr Holger Sirtl, when she hadn't returned to Dublin in time for her flight home the following day. An extensive Garda investigation and search operation ensued, and on October 17th the badly decomposed, semi-naked remains of Ms Poeschel were found lying face down in dense undergrowth just off the Donore road.
During the four-week trial the jury heard evidence of two alleged admissions by Mr Murphy to gardaí relating to the murder. He broke down sobbing and shaking after eight hours of questioning and told detectives: "Just tell that girl's parents I'm sorry for taking her life and for what I did to her. I'm so, so sorry."
A subsequent search of the graveyard at Donore found a skip with heavily mud-stained red shoes, black trousers and black socks, all belonging to Ms Poeschel.
Forensic tests on semen found on Ms Poeschel's body revealed a DNA profile that matched Murphy's. "The DNA profile of the higher vaginal swabs showed the presence of profiles of more than one person. The major profile matched that of Michael Murphy," Dr Maureen Smyth told the court. She estimated that the chances of someone else having the same DNA as Murphy as "less than one in a thousand million".
Several witnesses testified to seeing Ms Poeschel walking on the Donore road that day. She was last seen alive at 11.35 a.m. by a local businessman, Mr Kenneth Martin, who said he saw her walking on the road heading towards Donore. The victim's sister, Ms Cornelia Poeschel, also testified in court that the last contact she had had with her sister was through a text message sent on September 23rd. "She said she was on a beach and that everything was OK," said Ms Poeschel. "She was having a good time."
A student, Ms Siobhan Byrne, gave evidence that on the night of September 25th she was sitting on a wall near the Mullachrone quarry with two friends when she noticed a black Honda Civic pull up outside a laneway, about 400 metres from where the body was eventually found.
"A lorry drove by, and its lights shone on this figure which we presumed was a man from his build," Ms Byrne said. "We saw a man going up into the laneway. He was running up it. Then we heard the car drive off in the Donore direction. We never saw it again," she said.
Mr Pat McCahey testified that he had been working with the accused on the construction of the motorway at Donore on the day of Ms Poeschel's disappearance. He told the court Mr Murphy "kept shooting off to see another man" about a pump. "He could be away 20 minutes, half an hour or longer. He was away four or five times," he added.
"There was a particular time we were talking about dogs," said Mr McCahey. "Michael Murphy said to me he'd have to take some disinfectant, that that was going to be good stuff for cleaning out the kennels. He wanted it for the dogs. It was a container of some liquid that was a cleaning fluid in the toilets."
Forensic tests on the black panties found on Ms Poeschel's body revealed a "strong support that the smell was Jeyes Fluid," according to a forensic expert, Mr John McCullough.
Three Latvian men told the court that Murphy did not take his 10 o'clock break with them as normal on September 25th. Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Rinalds Baumanis said Murphy "had to go in the city, around 10 o'clock. He had to see the doctor". Mr Baumanis said that Murphy spent "most of the time outside".
Earlier a Drogheda GP, Dr Michael O'Brien, testified that Murphy attended his surgery on September 26th for a back complaint. "He said he got it at work while bending down to tie his shoe laces," he added.
Murphy has a string of previous convictions ranging from manslaughter to larceny, armed robbery to assault. He was charged with the murder of Mrs Catherine Carroll on October 20th, 1983. He strangled the 64-year-old widow while she was coming home from a whist drive. He was found guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1984. He was released in 1992 after serving almost nine years.
Later convictions include armed robbery and an assault on two women as they walked home from a late disco. Murphy grabbed the two by the neck and tried to pull them to the ground in Drogheda in 1997. He served six months for that attack.
Speaking after the verdict Mr Justice Ó Caoimh said he hoped the unanimous verdict would bring "closure to what has undoubtedly been a difficult chapter in the lives of the Poeschel family".
Speaking outside the Four Courts afterwards, Ms Poeschel's father, Jörgen, accompanied by her younger sister, Cornelia, said they were relieved at the verdict. "It made a closure of a bad chapter for my family," he said. "I want to thank the gardaí for their investigations and support. I want also to thank the local community in Donore and Drogheda for their assistance and for the sympathy they have shown us during all this time."
Insp Gerry O'Brien of Drogheda Garda station told reporters he was delighted with the decision. "A lot of people gave a lot of effort, and we tried to reconstruct the events," he said. "It was a terrible tragedy and an opportunistic crime."