A Co Galway man who denies the rape and murder of a schoolgirl has told his trial that he was in a local village on the evening and night of her death.
The 27-year-old man took the witness stand in the Central Criminal Court before Mr Justice Smith yesterday to deny all charges against him.
The girl's body was found on rocks at a beach in Co Galway on December 6th, 1998.
The accused man said he had spoken to a girl on the night in question, but she had walked away after telling him that she was going back to her boyfriend in a car parked across the road. He said that this girl "could have been" the deceased.
Replying to Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, the accused man denied that there was an oval-shaped mark like a tooth mark on his arm on the day after the killing. He could not remember a friend drawing his attention to the mark in a pub that afternoon.
He also denied the evidence of another witness, who said he saw him driving his car from the direction of the beach and his home in the early hours of December 6th, 1998.
Replying to Mr Barry White SC, defending, the accused man said that on the night of the killing he had sat in his car for a time in the village and then walked around, but he had not met anyone he knew until later in the night.
The accused man admitted that he had struck his former girlfriend in a fight outside a local hotel nightclub earlier on the night of December 5th/6th.
The defence case is expected to conclude on Monday.