A 24-year-old Dublin man who alerted gardaí to a "grisly scene" where his homeless teenage girlfriend had been "viciously strangled" was later charged with her murder, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Mr Phillip Reddin, originally from Donamore Park, Tallaght, Dublin, now of no fixed abode, has denied murdering Niamh Murphy (17), originally from Galway, at a house in Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge on May 10th, 2002. Opening the case, Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, told the court that on the afternoon in question Mr Reddin approached a garda on duty outside the American Embassy in Ballsbridge.
He told the garda that "I went and came back ... she's dead, her throat is cut and there is blood everywhere". Gardai were alerted to a derelict house in Pembroke Road where Mr Reddin had been squatting with Ms Murphy. Mr Reddin brought gardaí to the scene where Ms Murphy was found "in a gruesome and grisly state, covered in blood". The post-mortem showed Ms Murphy had been "violently strangled" before her throat was cut with garden shears.
The court heard that Mr Reddin was arrested in June 2002 and made statements to gardaí in which he admitted having a row with Ms Murphy in the house on the day in question. The trial continues today.