Two former co-workers of murder accused Mr John Crerar told his trial that they saw him washing out the boot of his car with boiling water days after the disappearance of Kildare woman Ms Phyllis Murphy over 22 years ago.
One of them admitted that he had lied to gardaí in 1980 when he told them Mr Crerar arrived at work at 8 p.m. on the night Ms Murphy went missing. He lied "to save his own skin", he said, because he was not supposed to leave the factory until both replacement security guards turned up.
Meanwhile, a sister of Ms Murphy, Ms Martina McCormack, told the court that she, Phyllis and another sister, Breda, used to babysit for the Crerars when they were teenagers.
Ms Murphy's youngest brother, Patrick, said he could not remember whether Phyllis had babysat for the Crerars or not. He remembered that Mr Crerar was friendly with his older sister, Claire, and her husband, Noel, and that Mr Crerar used to drive Claire from Kildare to the Coombe Hospital when she was pregnant.
It was the 13th day of the Central Criminal Court trial of Mr Crerar (54), a father of five, Woodside Park, Kildare, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Murphy (23), on a date unknown between December 22nd, 1979, and January 18th, 1980.
The prosecution alleges that Ms Murphy "disappeared" at a bus stop opposite the Keadeen Hotel, Newbridge, Co Kildare, shortly after 6.30 p.m. on December 22nd, 1979. Her body was found naked and strangled under spruce trees in a forested area near the Wicklow Gap 28 days later.
Mr Sean Phelan, a former soldier who worked as a security guard for Provincial Security Services at the Black & Decker plant in Kildare in 1979, said that by the time he left work shortly after 8 p.m. on December 22nd, Mr Crerar had not arrived.
He said that sometime between Saturday 22nd and Christmas Eve, he worked a day shift with Mr Crerar. Mr Crerar told his co-workers that he was going to clean his car.
"Mr Crerar drove his car about 100 yards up the car park of the Black & Decker facility and that's where he started cleaning his car," he said.
"He explained to me that he was going to clean his car, that seemingly his wife had spilled cream or milk in it and it was stinking because of that."
Mr Phelan said there was no hot water in the security hut, but there was a kettle and a mop and bucket. He said the accused boiled the kettle and put the water in the bucket and brought it to his car. "He must have done that several times," he said. "It struck me as very odd. Given the quietness of the day, he could have parked his car close to the hot water and the cleaning materials. I can't remember how long [it took] but to me it was an inordinate length of time to spend cleaning a car," the witness said.
The trial continues today.