A DETECTIVE SERGEANT has described finding two bodies fused together in a burnt-out car in Louth six years ago.
Detective sergeant Shane Curran was giving evidence to the Central Criminal Court this morning in the trial of a 34-year-old Dubliner charged with murdering two men, who the prosecutor described as ‘small-time criminals’.
Jason O’Driscoll, with an address at Richmond Avenue, Fairview is accused of murdering fellow Dubliners 31-year-old Anthony Burnett and 25-year-old Joseph Redmond on 7 March, 2012 in Co Louth.
He has pleaded not guilty to both charges and the jury will be asked to use circumstantial evidence to convict him.
Curran of the Garda Ballistics Section testified that he was called to a carpark in Ravensdale Park near Dundalk that night.
He told Alexander Owens SC, prosecuting, that he saw a burnt-out car containing the badly burnt remains of two adult males.
“The body in the driver seat was slumped out the door; the head was slumped out the door,” he recalled.
The body in the passenger seat was slumped across this body, partially fused.
He said that he and his colleagues carefully separated the bodies and, with no identification for them, they assigned ‘Body A’ to the passenger’s remains and ‘Body B’ to the driver’s.
Bullets recovered
He also attended the post-mortem exams on both bodies. He said that two badly damaged bullets were recovered from the head area of Body A. They were fragmented into seven pieces.
He said that two damaged bullets of the same caliber were also recovered from the head area of Body B. They were received in four pieces.
The jury also heard that the two bodies were later identified using DNA analysis on their muscle samples.
Forensic scientist Dr Emily Jordan said she extracted DNA profiles from samples taken from both bodies. She compared them with DNA reference samples from Redmond’s mother, Pauline Doran, and from Burnett’s mother, Marie Burnett.
She said that her findings were ‘fully consistent’ with Body A being the biological son of Marie Burnett and Body B being the biological son of Pauline Doran.
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Michael White and a jury of five women and seven men.
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