A man accused of murdering a prostitute told a jury in the Central Criminal Court yesterday that another man, unidentified and missing, killed the woman, but that he could not prove it.
"I have to prove my innocence and I cannot," said Mr Philip Colgan (27), of Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, who denies murdering Ms Layla Brennan (24), of Ronanstown, Co Dublin, on or about March 2nd last year.
In cross-examination, Ms Maureen Clark SC, prosecuting, asked the accused why he admitted to gardai that he killed Ms Brennan and later changed his story.
"Are you hoping to confuse the jury?" Ms Clark asked. "No," Mr Colgan replied. "I did not [kill her]. X did and X was never found. It's not my fault that it cannot be proved," he said.
He said that shortly after Ms Brennan's death he contacted the brother of the man he alleges carried out the killing and took him to see the body in a ditch.
Mr Colgan alleges he told the brother the second man killed Ms Brennan and was now "on the run". Later, Mr Colgan said he needed to make a statement to the Garda admitting Ms Brennan's killing because "if I did not make a statement and if Layla Brennan was not found, his brother would've known I was bull....ing him. If Layla was not found, and it did not come to light, his brother had no reason to be on the run", he said.
Ms Clark put it to Mr Colgan that it was "extraordinary that your description of how you murdered Layla Brennan, your version you gave over eight documents, coincides exactly with injuries given by [Deputy State Pathologist] Dr Marie Cassidy".
Dr Cassidy's account of "relatively few" injuries was consistent with the deceased having "a hand which broke her thyroid bone and a hand over her mouth", Ms Clark said.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Butler and a jury.