A Dublin man on trial for the murder of his 17-year-old girlfriend told gardaí his girlfriend was pregnant and he would do what he could to help them catch her killer.
One month later Mr Phillip Reddin (24) confessed to gardaí that he had strangled her and cut her throat during a violent row over his former girlfriend.
At the Central Criminal Court today Det Sgt Colm O'Mahoney gave evidence that on the day Niamh Murphy's body was discovered in a derelict house in Ballsbridge Mr Reddin claimed he had spent the morning out walking alone, warning his young girlfriend to lock the door behind him.
He was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Mr Phillip Reddin (24) originally from Donamore Park, Tallaght, Dublin and now of no fixed abode. Mr Reddin has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Niamh Murphy, who was originally from Galway at a house in Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge on May 10th, 2002.
The teenage girl was strangled and had her throat cut with a garden shears in an upstairs room of a derelict house where she had been squatting for some months with Mr Reddin.
The Deputy State Pathologist told the trial that her postmortem examination of the deceased's body confirmed that she was not pregnant. Evidence from Mr Martin Cheney, a man who also stayed at the derelict house was that the deceased and accused had told him she was pregnant the night before her death.
Det Gda Thomas Roche told Mr Paul O'Higgins SC for the prosecution that when in custody following his arrest, the accused man told him he wanted "to tell the truth" about the killing.
"The truth is Niamh and I woke up that morning, we'd taken a couple of Rohypnol tablets and had a couple of joints [of hash]," the accused said in his statement in June 2002.
"We watched TV for a while and then Niamh just snapped," he continued. He said the argument was over a former girlfriend of his and Reddin said "I told her if I wanted to be with Joanne I could have the other night". He said the deceased started to hit him with bottles and he showed gardaí a cut he received to his shoulder.
"She also hit me on the hand, that's when I strangled her to stop her shouting and hitting me," he said.
"I grabbed her neck and I kept on choking her and before I knew it she was blue in the face". He said he panicked and picked up the garden shears "because he knew everyone's prints were on it". "I drew it across her neck, then panicked…and ran outside to call the gardaí."
He continued to say he was sorry for what he had done. "I accept the consequences, I am wholly sorry and remorseful for it".
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury.