Jury told DNA near corpse matched accused’s
A 24-YEAR-OLD man’s decapitated body was found in a shallow grave in a Kildare woods, a prosecution barrister has told a murder trial.
Brendan Grehan SC, for the State, also told the Central Criminal Court jury yesterday that attempts had been made to cut up and burn the body of Philip Finnegan, who had been missing for almost a month and had met a ‘gruesome death’.
Significantly, the barrister said, the jury will hear evidence that a bloodied glove was found in the woods which was a DNA match to the accused man, Stephen Penrose.
On the opening day of the trial, Judge Alexander Owens told the jury of eight men and four women that the accused, Mr Penrose, had dispensed with his legal team, which he was entitled to do, and that they should not draw any inference from that.
Mr Penrose, 38, of Newtown Court, Malahide Road, Coolock, Dublin 17, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Finnegan, 24, at Rahin Woods, Rahin, Edenderry, Co. Kildare, on August 10, 2016.
In his opening address, Mr Grehan said that on the day of the killing, Mr Finnegan left his home and told his mother Angela Finnegan, who will be a witness in the trial, that he was meeting Mr Penrose.
At 4.40pm that day, Mrs Finnegan tried to telephone Philip but his phone was off. The following day she went to Kilmainham Garda Station to report that her son was missing. Gardaí later found that Mr Finnegan’s phone was last used in Edenderry in Co. Offaly, south of Rahin Woods.
Mr Penrose was arrested on August 31 and gave an account that he and Mr Finnegan had ‘ran foul’ of a group of men near Kilcock, Co. Kildare.
On September 2, the day Mr Penrose was due to be released from custody, a dog walker in Rahin Woods alerted gardaí after his dog found human remains. It was established through fingerprints and DNA that the remains were that of Mr Finnegan, the court heard.
Mr Grehan told the court that the blood on a glove that was found nearby was a DNA match to the accused, Mr Penrose.
Mr Penrose was rearrested on November 16, 2016. The trial continues today.