A teenager told a murder trial jury yesterday that one of two men accused of murdering a woman in her Cork City flat told her that they had done it.
Ms Maressa Cuddihy said Mr Thomas Penkert told her that Ms Nora Kiely was strangled, and he went on to describe the look on her face. "It was funny," he had told her.
But a second teenager, Ms Hazel O'Boyle, told the court that Mr Penkert, whom she met through an Internet chat room, had told her that his co-accused, Mr Brian Walsh, had killed Ms Kiely.
Ms O'Boyle said Mr Penkert told her by telephone while she was on a family holiday in Gran Canaria that he had not gone near Ms Kiely and that he had never intended to kill her.
Both Ms Cuddihy and Ms O'Boyle gave their evidence through a videolink at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Penkert (21) and Mr Walsh (22), with an address at Leitrim St, Cork, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Kiely (46) on July 15th, 2002. The victim, described in court as a private person who was always well dressed, was found strangled in her flat, naked from the waist down with a small black-handled knife under her hand.
The jury has heard that the two accused were living in a flat in the block. They have both admitted robbing Ms Kiely of less than €20 in cash and two items of jewellery. The jury was sent home until Thursday to allow legal argument to continue in their absence.