A witness yesterday told a jury that a man accused of murdering his wife told him gardai were out to get him, but were not clever enough to catch him out. He agreed he had kept silent for 2 1/2 years before making his allegation.
Mr David Murphy (36), of Munster Street, Phibsboro, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mrs Patricia Murphy (33) between May 27th and May 28th, 1996. The couple lived with their four children in Griffith Avenue. Mrs Murphy's body was found beside a skip in Glasnevin.
Mr Gary Ryan, a Finglas shop owner, agreed with Mr Gregory Murphy SC, prosecuting, that he had made a statement of additional evidence on December 7th.
Mr Ryan said he ran a removals service in 1996. From newspaper coverage of the trial he had recalled a removal from Griffith Avenue to either Munster Road or Munster Street in June 1996.
He had loaded his van under the direction of a man he thought was the landlord. A man he now knew to be Mr Murphy arrived and said to the other man: "If those feckers come about, don't tell them anything".
He drove to Phibsboro with Mr Murphy, who struck up a conversation. In evidence contested by the defence, Mr Ryan alleged Mr Murphy had said "the woman found at the skip" was his wife, and the Garda was trying to make out he did it. "The bastards even brought me in and showed me photographs of my dead wife," he had allegedly said.
They had even accused him of sexually abusing his children, Mr Murphy allegedly said, and "They think they are clever by doing all this, but they are not clever enough to catch me out".
Mr Ryan said he got "a bit of a cold chill" from that comment, and after that, "there was a bit of an awkward silence".
Mr Brendan Grogan SC, defending, suggested that that conversation never happened. Mr Ryan said it had. "At the time, I thought he was basically a fruit-and-nut case", he said. "I just wanted to get rid of him, you know. You meet strange people every day".
Mrs Murphy's brother, Mr Seamus Ryan, said he was an employee of An Post. In 1996 he undertook to trace a money order sent to Patricia by her mother. Mr Murphy told him he had cashed it.
Mrs Joy Gillivan, of Glasnevin Downs, told the court Mr Murphy had quoted her £900 to install a shower and toilet unit in her garage and started it on May 7th.
Mrs Gillivan said that in the week before Mrs Murphy's death Mr Murphy failed to come to work in her house on the Tuesday and then the Wednesday. He said Patricia had not returned from Clare, then on Wednesday that she was back.
On May 27th Mrs Gillivan went to pick up Mr Murphy as usual, but he did not appear. When she was collecting her children at 1:30 p.m. from school, Mr Murphy was there and said he would be up at 2 p.m. By 4:45 p.m., when he had not arrived, she drove to his house and he came out to the gate. It was then she heard that Patricia had started a job and had not returned home yet.
Mrs Gillivan said she asked Mr Murphy for a tool of hers. She saw him going into the garden and then into the garage. The next day at 8:55 a.m., Mrs Gillivan said, Mr Murphy said his wife had not returned. He appeared "very upset and concerned".
Mr Brian Gillivan, Joy Gillivan's husband, said he remembered meeting Mr Murphy at the school around the time he heard Mrs Murphy had not returned from Clare. Mr Murphy "did not appear overly concerned".
A milkman, Mr Alan O'Loughlin, told the jury he came on Mr Murphy in Griffith Avenue at around 4:30 a.m. on May 28th. Mr Murphy had bought two litres of milk and told him to keep the change from £2.
Two men gave evidence that they had "answered the call of nature" near the skip at The Rise, Glasnevin, on the night of the 27th and the early morning of the 28th and there was no body there.
Ms Mary Moore, a charity worker connected with Corpus Christi Catholic Church parish, said she met a man with a baby in a buggy at 1:15 p.m. on May 27th, as she entered the parish hall. She held the door open, but the man did not follow her inside.
That afternoon she found a bag of adults' clothes in the hallway. The charity wanted no clothes. Days later she found the bag contained men's clothes. Shown photographs by gardai, she had chosen one most like the man at hall. She agreed that "months, not weeks later", she went with a garda and pointed out the man.
The trial continues.