A 47-year-old man whose skeletal remains were found more than five months after he went missing suggest he suffered multiple fractures to bones in his head, face and torso, a murder trial heard on Thursday.
Kieran Quilligan had suffered a significant assault with some blunt implement such as a hammer, Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster told the trial of co-accused Niall Long (33) and Luke Taylor (27) at the Central Criminal Court in Cork.
Both Mr Long, of St Michael’s Close, Mahon, Cork, and Mr Taylor, formerly of Cherry Lawn, Blackrock, Cork, have denied the murder of Mr Quilligan on a date unknown between September 1st, 2023, and January 29th, 2024.
On Thursday, Dr Bolster told the jury of 10 men and two women that she conducted a postmortem on the skeletal remains of Mr Quilligan, which had been found by a cadaver dog under a jute bag in scrubland at Whitewell, Rostellan, in east Cork on January 29th, 2024.
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She was not able to say exactly when Mr Quilligan had died nor was she able to give a precise cause of death, due to the length of time between his death and the postmortem.
Dr Bolster revealed that Mr Quilligan had both old, healed fractures as well as more recent newer fractures and the latter included fractures of the temporal bone, parietal bone and mandible or jaw bone in the head as well as fractures to several ribs, leg bones and hand bones.
“Fractures don’t cause death, it is usually trauma to underlying organs, but I could not establish the cause of death because there were no organs left,” said Dr Bolster, as she explained the lack of tissue and organs also meant she could not carry out any toxicology tests on Mr Quilligan.
Cross-examined by Brendan Grehan SC for Mr Taylor, she agreed if Mr Quilligan had been shot in the head, there would be evidence of this in his skull and similarly a stab wound to the torso could leave marks on bones, but she found no evidence of either on his skeletal remains.
Dr Bolster said that several of Mr Quilligan’s fractures, including one to his jaw and one to his thigh bone, were “suggestive of a blow with a blunt instrument like a hammer and there is no doubt at all, they are consistent with a severe and significant assault”.
She said she believed two pieces of knotted plastic found tied around Mr Quilligan’s neck area were unusual ligatures and were more likely used to lift the remains. She also believed that a ratchet type cable tying his legs together was also used to lift and move the remains.
The jury also heard from Sgt Maurice O’Connor of how he seized a number of mobile phones as part of the investigation, including one from Mr Long’s home at St Michael’s Close on September 15th, 2023. Gardaí were able to retrieve texts sent and received by the phones.
He said he found a message on the phone seized at St Michael’s Close which belonged to Mr Long’s mother, Janice, sent on 6.23pm on September 2nd, 2023, in which she said she had noticed a smell of Dettol in the boot of her Toyota Rav car.
Sgt O’Connor said that although gardaí were not able to locate the phone from which a reply was sent, they were able to establish the content of the message in which the sender admitted that there may have been a smell in the boot of Ms Long’s Toyota Rav jeep.
“Yeah, it does, the fellow who robbed me and cut my neck got a hiding and got thrown in the boot, so the boot was cleaned,” said the sender.
The jury were earlier told they would hear evidence the accused used Ms Long’s jeep to transport Mr Qulligan’s body. The case continues.
