A 38-year-old man has appeared before Bray District Court charged with the murder of mother-of-three Anne Shortall (47).
Roy Webster arrived at Bray District Court at 9.45am in an unmarked grey Garda car. Flanked by three detectives, he kept his head bowed as he was led the short distance past the waiting media to the courtroom.
Mr Webster was wearing blue tracksuit bottoms with a double white stripe down the sides and a Leinster hoodie.
Detective Sgt Fergus O'Brien told Judge David Kennedy that he charged Mr Webster with murder at 10.15pm on Wednesday. Mr Webster was also cautioned and provided with a copy of the charge sheet.
The court heard the accused made no reply to the charge.
Mr Webster’s solicitor requested that his client undergo a psychological assessment, which Judge Kennedy consented to.
Mr Webster was remanded in custody to appear before Cloverhill District Court on April 16th.
Gardaí upgraded the status of their investigation into the killing of Ms Shortall to that of a murder inquiry following the results of a postmortem on her body at St Columcille’s Hospital in Dublin on Wednesday.
Ms Shortall, a mother of three adult children and grandmother to two children, was from Rathnew, near Wicklow town. She was last seen alive at Leitrim Place in the town at about 4pm on Good Friday. A missing person alert was issued by gardaí on Monday following her disappearance.
Some members of the public shouted expletives at Mr Webster as he was led to court.
