Drug dealer Eoin O’Connor, whose body was found on a lake island more than 10 years ago, had sent a text message on the last day he was seen alive, saying, “have to go to country, Woodlands in Ballyjamesduff, if anything happens to me”, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Ruth Lawrence (45), who is originally from Clontarf in Dublin but with an address at Patricks Cottage, Ross, Mountnugent in Co Meath has pleaded not guilty to murdering Anthony Keegan (33) and Eoin O’Connor (32) at an unknown location within the State on a date between April 22nd, 2014, and May 26th, 2014, both dates inclusive.
In his opening speech, Michael O’Higgins SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the jury that the prosecution can last place Mr Keegan and Mr O’Connor as being alive on the early evening of April 22nd, 2014, and “thereafter they disappeared from sight”.
Mr O’Higgins said in his opening address that the prosecution was not in a position to adduce evidence “to pinpoint the precise moment” when both men were shot dead. However, “looking at the evidence in the round” it seems likely it was later on the evening of April 22nd, 2014.
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Sarah Skedd, a senior intelligence analyst with the Garda, on Wednesday told Jane Horgan-Jones, prosecuting, that she had call data records for 12 phone numbers in the investigation and examined them to see what calls and connections were made as well as what cell sites were used.
Ms Skedd said Mr O’Connor’s phone handset was retrieved from a Ford Focus on April 23rd, 2014. The jury has heard that on the evening of Tuesday, April 22nd, Mr O’Connor drove himself and Mr Keegan to Ballyjamesduff in Co Cavan in his mother’s silver-coloured Ford Focus.
Referring to Monday, April 21st, 2014 – the day before the men were last seen alive – Ms Skedd said Mr O’Connor and Mr Keegan’s phone records indicated they had arrived in Co Cavan at 9.30am and left by 2pm.
The witness said Mr O’Connor and Mr Keegan’s phones had used cell sites in Dublin on Tuesday, April 22nd at 5.43pm. Following this, Ms Skedd said cell sites were used on the men’s phones, which were “consistent with a journey along the N3”, travelling in a northwesterly direction.
Ms Skedd agreed connections on Mr O’Connor’s phone were happening with cell sites covering the Ballyjamesduff area in Co Cavan about 7.29pm until 8.41pm that evening. “Cell sites located slightly outside the town,” said the witness.
Ms Skedd said a phone that the prosecution says belonged to Ms Lawrence and another phone allegedly associated with the accused and her boyfriend, Neville van der Westhuizen, had used cell sites consistent with travelling towards Cavan town and in Cavan town after 6.25pm on the same evening.
She agreed the last cell site Ms Lawrence’s phone connected to was a site in Cavan town. The last activity on the accused’s phone was at 7.36pm with no activity after that, she said.
The witness said the last text message Mr O’Connor had received on his phone was at 8.38pm that night.
Earlier, the witness said Mr O’Connor had sent a text message to another number at 5.57pm on April 22, which said: “Have to go to country, Woodlands in Ballyjamesduff if anything happens me.”
The trial continues on Thursday before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of four men and eight women.
In his opening address, Mr O’Higgins said the evidence will be that Mr O’Connor sold drugs to Mr van der Westhuizen, who owed the deceased man in the region of €70,000. Mr O’Higgins told the jury that the State would argue Ms Lawrence shot drug dealer Mr O’Connor and worked “as a unit” with her boyfriend to kill him and Mr Keegan, with their bodies later found “bound in rope, tape and covered in tarpaulin” on Inchicup Island on Lough Sheelin.
