30 year old Ionut Cosmin Nicolescu, with an address in Romania, appeared in court yesterday for the first day of what is expected to be a three week trial.
He denies the charge of murder.
In his outline of the case, which he told the jury of 8 women and 4 men was not to be taken as evidence, Prosecution barrister Ray Boland SC said the jury would have to listen to some “gruesome aspects” of the case.
He said the jurors would hear evidence that a man looking for a missing cat at the derelict “Castlegreina House” on Boreenmanna Road on the 28th of December 2019 had discovered a male body with it’s head and arms missing under a bush.
Francis "Frankie" Dunne’s head and clothing were later found in two refuse sacks at the scene and his arms were also located.
He said it would be the state’s case that the accused had left Cork two days later and had returned to Romania via Dundalk, Belfast and Edinburgh.
Investigating Gardaí travelled to Romania in January 2020 and the accused was voluntarily interviewed by Romanian police.
Mr Boland told the jury that Ionut Cosmin Nicolescu told Romanian police that when he arrived at the derelict house where he had been squatting on the 27th of December, two men- one with a machete and one with a knife- had been standing near Frankie Dunne.
He told Romanian Police that the pair had threatened him and forced him to help them dispose of the body.
Ray Boland told the jury that it would be the state’s case that the two men the accused said had threatened him did not exist.
He also said that evidence regarding a roll of plastic refuse sacks found in the house that he said had Frankie Dunne’s blood on them would be presented by the state. Nicolescu had told Romanian police that the refuse sacks were used to clean up after other people who had been squatting at the house.
The Central Criminal Court trial before the jury and Mr Justice Paul McDermott continues today.
