A Dublin man on trial for the murder of his 17-year-old girlfriend told gardaí that she had been pregnant and that he would do what he could to help them catch her killer.
One month later Phillip Reddin (24) confessed to gardaí that he had strangled her and cut her throat during a violent row over his former girlfriend.
At the Central Criminal Court yesterday, Det Sgt Colm O'Mahoney gave evidence that on the day Ms Niamh Murphy's body was discovered in a derelict house in Ballsbridge, Mr Reddin claimed he had spent the morning out walking alone having warned her to lock the door behind him.
He told gardaí, "we spoke about what kind of buggy we were going to get and what kind of clothes".
He had said, "I was worried ... would I be a good dad, would I be able to show the difference between right and wrong", Det Sgt O'Mahoney told the court.
The detective was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Mr Reddin, originally from Donamore Park, Tallaght, Dublin, and now of no fixed abode.
Mr Reddin has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Murphy, originally from Galway, at a house on Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge, on May 10th, 2002.
The teenager was strangled and had her throat cut with a garden shears in an upstairs room of a derelict house where she had been squatting for some months with Mr Reddin.
The deputy State pathologist told the trial that her post-mortem of the deceased's body confirmed that she was not pregnant.
Det Garda Thomas Roche told Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for the prosecution, that when in custody, the accused told him he wanted "to tell the truth" about the killing. "The truth is Niamh and I woke up that morning, we'd taken a couple of Rohypnol tablets and had a couple of joints [of hash]," the accused said in his statement in June 2002.
"We watched TV for a while and then Niamh just snapped," he continued.
He claimed the argument was over a former girlfriend of his, and said: "I told her if I wanted to be with Joanne I could have the other night."
He alleged that the deceased started to hit him with bottles and he showed gardaí a cut he received to his shoulder.
"She also hit me on the hand. That's when I strangled her - to stop her shouting and hitting me," he said.
"I grabbed her neck and I kept on choking her and before I knew it she was blue in the face."
He claimed he panicked and picked up the garden shears because he "knew everyone's prints were on it".
He continued to say he was sorry for what he had done. "I accept the consequences, I am wholly sorry and remorseful for it," he said in his statement.
In her evidence, deputy State pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy said "it cannot be excluded" that Ms Murphy was still alive "but unconscious and unlikely to survive" when her throat was cut. She told the court there was evidence of manual strangulation as well as a five-inch throat injury.
"Death was due to neck injuries, the combined effects of compression to the neck and the cut throat injury," she said.
She said "considerable force" was used to restrain and strangle the girl and the absence of defence injuries suggested she was overcome very quickly by her attacker.
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Carney and a jury.