An engineering student charged with the murder of his 11-year-old neighbour visited the scene where the boy's body was dumped, laid flowers at the spot and said a prayer there for the dead boy, a court heard yesterday.
Wayne O'Donoghue's girlfriend, Rebecca Dennehy (19), told how she had accompanied Mr O'Donoghue (21) when he drove to Inch Strand near Whitegate in Cork to lay flowers at the scene where the body of Robert Holohan had been found in January this year.
"I went with Wayne in the car to Inch. I had bought flowers. I stayed in the car. Wayne got out and put the flowers at the scene and said a prayer. He was really quiet in the car the whole way up and down. It was like a dead silence," she said.
Ms Dennehy was giving evidence for the prosecution on the fourth day of Mr O'Donoghue's trial for the murder of Robert Holohan at Ballyedmond, Midleton, on January 4th, 2005. He denies the murder charge but pleads guilty to manslaughter.
Ms Dennehy told the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork yesterday that she had known Mr O'Donoghue since she was 12 or 13 when they met at school. She started dating him in July 2004 and had fallen in love with him.
"I love Wayne to bits and I feel the same way about him today. I just can't comprehend how it happened.Wayne is such a good person. It broke my heart to hear," she said.
"Wayne always treated me like a queen from the day I met him. He was always there for me if I needed him, day or night."
Ms Dennehy told the court how she had gone to the O'Donoghue house late on the night of January 16th after gardaí had contacted her and said that Mr O'Donoghue wanted to tell her something personally.
"He told me he was responsible. He looked wrecked. He was tired from crying. He was still crying, I would say, he was shaking. It was horrible," said Ms Dennehy.
She had already told how Mr O'Donoghue had called to her earlier that morning just a day after Robert's funeral.
Mr O'Donoghue told her that there was a profile of Robert's abductor in the paper and it looked like gardaí were close to making an arrest. "At that time, he said they probably thought he was involved as he had seen Rob on the day he disappeared," she said.
Ms Dennehy also told of how they used to follow the coverage of Robert's disappearance together, reading the papers and watching television, and Mr O'Donoghue spoke to her about the fact that he had seen Robert on the day he disappeared.
"Wayne did say that because he was one of the last to see him they might think that he was involved. I think he was upset by the whole thing," Ms Dennehy told Shane Murphy SC, prosecuting.
Wayne told her that the first day, January 8th, he was formally interviewed by gardaí to make a witness statement "they were a bit hard on him". But he said that the second interview the following day, when he was asked for additional information, he found "a bit easier".
Ms Dennehy, who described Mr O'Donoghue as "generous and caring" and said she "could not fault Wayne personally", also went on to describe his relationship with Robert, whom she had met on numerous occasions in Mr O'Donoghue's company.
"They got on really well - Wayne was mad about Robert. He treated him like a younger brother," she said. She never saw Mr O'Donoghue get cross with Robert or show any negative emotion towards him or say anything derogatory about him.
The only word that Mr O'Donoghue ever used about Robert was that he was "hyper", said Ms Dennehy, adding that she had met Robert in Mr O'Donoghue's house six or seven times when they were playing with the PlayStation.
"It was typical boys' stuff. They just got on really well," she said.
The trial resumes on Tuesday before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury.
