The wife of a murder suspect told a jury in the Central Criminal Court yesterday that her husband told her he had strangled a prostitute and thrown her naked body into a ditch in the Dublin mountains.
Philip Colgan (27) of Crannagh Castle, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, has denied that on or about March 2nd, 1999, he murdered Ms Layla Brennan (24), of Moorefield Green, Ronanstown, Co Dublin.
Mrs Mary Colgan, of Crannagh Castle, Rathfarnham, said that on March 2nd, 1999, her husband had rung home at 2.20 a.m. in a "distressed" state and asked her to come and collect him. She said he told her she said he told her several days later he had met a prostitute that evening.
Asked by prosecution counsel Ms Maureen Clarke SC if the accused told her he had strangled Ms Brennan to death, Mrs Colgan said, "yes". She said he also told her he put Ms Brennan's body into the boot of his car, drove up the Dublin mountains and put her body into a ditch. She said she wanted her husband to write all these things down, which she alleges he did. Mrs Colgan then read from the notes she claims her husband dictated to her, stating: "I hit her the second time and knocked her out. When she woke up she was screaming. I couldn't stop her. I grabbed her by the throat and squeezed until she stopped moving. I put her in the boot of the car and drove to the Dublin mountains."
Ms Clarke said Ms Brennan's body, naked except for one shoe and one sock, was found by gardai after they followed instructions from the accused as to where the body was. After a thorough search of the accused's home, gardai found a bag containing Ms Brennan's clothes hidden in a shed adjacent to Colgan's house, and the court would hear that forensic tests concluded Ms Brennan's hair and blood were found in Mr Colgan's car, Ms Clarke said. The trial before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of eight women and four men continues today.