The trial of a young Kilkenny man, accused of murdering his friend's mother, has heard that he used a bloody €50 note to pay for a PlayStation game on the evening of the killing.
Mr Mark Costigan (18), Aylesbury, Kilkenny city, has denied the murder of Ms Christine Quinn (36) at her home on Greenfields Road, Kilkenny, on December 5th, 2002.
Mr Paul Murphy, who sold Mr Costigan the game at about 5.30 p.m., said it was paid for with a voucher and a €50 note. "The note had blood on one side of it," he told the Central Criminal Court. "At first I put it in the till. After Mark had left, I took it out."
After a co-worker in Gamesworld told him it could not be given to a customer as change, Mr Murphy said he brought it into the storeroom and washed the blood off it.
Mr Murphy also told the court that Mr Costigan "had blood the whole way across the front of his jumper. I asked him what had happened. He said he had fallen and cut his hand." He added that Mr Costigan seemed to be wearing a black glove on his right hand.
The court was shown CCTV footage of the transaction.
One of his teachers, Ms Olive Keyes, gave evidence that there was nothing wrong with her student's hand that morning. She taught Mr Costigan contemporary issues, hotel, catering and tourism at Kilkenny vocational school and he was in her class at 11.50 a.m. that day.
In a previous statement to gardaí, Ms Keyes had said: "I noticed nothing unusual with Mark Costigan. He was quiet and well behaved. I noticed nothing about his hands. Mark Costigan was a bright student with plenty of ability." She confirmed that students were relieved from school at 12.20 p.m. that day due to a lack of teachers and that utensils for the catering class were available to students in the school kitchen.
Two other witnesses testified to noticing nothing wrong with him early that day.
Det Luke Kelly and Det Garda Willie Maher called to Mr Costigan's home on December 11th, 2002. "Mark Costigan came to the door," Det Kelly told the court. "We told him we wished to speak to him and he invited us in."
They asked him to call to the station later with his father. "We were inviting people who had any contact with the Quinn home to volunteer fingerprints," Det Kelly told the court."I noticed one of his hands was heavily bandaged with salmon bandage," he said, adding that it was "unprofessionally put on".
Mr Costigan he told him he had cut it on a saw in school.