THE CENTRAL Criminal Court has heard evidence from the mother of murdered Swiss teenager Manuela Riedo.
Arlette Riedo told the court her daughter bought a Sony Ericsson mobile phone one week before she left for Galway.
The body of Ms Riedo (17) was found in wasteland close to the Lough Atalia area of Galway city. She had arrived in Galway to study English three days earlier.
Gerald Barry (28), Rosán Glas, Rahoon, Galway, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Manuela Riedo at Lough Atalia, Renmore, Galway on October 8th, 2007. He has pleaded guilty to stealing a camera and a mobile phone at the same place on the same date.
Ms Riedo told the court that she went to Galway on January 1st last year and was shown a number of items by gardaí, including an Olympus camera. She told gardaí her daughter had received the camera as a gift from her uncle.
The court has previously heard that gardaí found an Olympus camera in the room where Mr Barry had been sleeping in Rosán Glas.
Garda Geraldine Doherty told the court that she received a printout of a photo that had been taken on the camera. She said she carried out a search to try to determine the location of the photo.
She said she visited Millar’s Lane in the Rahoon area of Galway. The entrance to Millar’s Lane is opposite Rosán Glas, where the accused man lived at the time of the killing. She took photos there and they matched a photo from Manuela’s camera.
The accused’s sister, Louise Barry, told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that her brother was staying with her at Rosán Glas in October 2007. Ms Barry said she was shown CCTV footage by gardaí.
She saw a man walking down a street wearing a red jacket and confirmed that she had seen her brother wearing a similar jacket.
Yesterday the court also heard evidence of how the DNA of Mr Barry was found at the scene of the crime. Dr Maureen Smith, of the Forensic Science Laboratory, told Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, that she examined four swabs that gardaí had taken from the accused man.
Earlier, the court heard that a male DNA profile had been generated from the contents of a condom found “snagged in a bush” at the scene of the killing. Dr Smith said this profile matched the DNA profile of Mr Barry.
She said the chances that a person unrelated to Mr Barry would have the same profile are one in a thousand million and that the only persons who share DNA profiles are identical twins.
Dr Smith told the court that she generated a mixed DNA profile from the outside of the condom, which meant there was DNA present for more than one person.
The profile contained all the elements of DNA from both the accused and the victim.
There were no elements that did not compare to their profiles, she said.
Another witness, Mark Keady, told the court he was drinking with the accused man at his house in Rosán Glas on October 17th, 2007.
He said Mr Barry asked him to buy a Sony Ericsson mobile phone and that he bought it for €30.
Mr Keady said he went to Spiddal, outside Galway city, at 6pm and went into the local butcher’s where he sold the phone to the man working there, named John Enda Flaherty.
Mr Flaherty said there were messages in the phone in a foreign language. He said he gave the phone to his brother Robert Flaherty who told the court that he put his SIM card in it and noticed that there were a lot of messages written in a foreign language.
Mr Flaherty said he subsequently gave the phone to his father who handed it over to gardaí.
The trial resumes on Wednesday.