A daughter of Ronald McManus, the 44-year-old Sligo man who is on trial for the murder of Melissa Mahon, has told the Central Criminal Court that she saw her father strangling the schoolgirl with his arm.
The girl, who cannot be named, told the court that her father had asked her to hold a tie around Melissa Mahon's neck while he went to the bathroom and that he returned and placed a pillow over Ms Mahon’s face.
Ronald McManus, also known as Ronnie Dunbar, of Rathbraughan Park, Sligo denies the murder of the 14-year-old schoolgirl in September 2006.
His daughter - the second to give evidence by video link - said she thought at first it was a joke and did not believe that her father was really killing Melissa.
She told the Central Criminal Court: ‘I thought they were faking it, that it wasn't real, that he wasn't really killing her. Melissa joked, so I thought she was going to wake up any minute and laugh at me.’
The girl also told the court that she had gone to Sligo Garda Station in July 2008 to change her statements previously made to gardai. When asked what she wanted to say she replied: ‘the truth. That my Dad had murdered Melissa Mahon.’
She said on 21 September 2006 she saw her father lying on top of Melissa Mahon on his bed.
When she asked what he was doing her father replied ‘keeping her sweet and Melissa had laughed.
She left the room but returned with her sister some time later and saw her father lying on his side behind Melissa.
She said he had his forearm around Melissa's neck and was strangling her. She said her father told them that Melissa was going to go to the gardai about him and that Melissa had tried to kill him.
When she and her sister went with their father to dispose of the body, she said their father had told them they were accessories to murder.
The court was told she and her sister did not talk about what had happened that evening but she wrote text messages to her sister on her phone and handed her the phone.
She said she asked her Dad not to kill her if she was bad.
Her father later burned Melissa's belongings, the court was told. She also said that in March 2007 her father took her back to the location where they dumped the body and her father rowed up and down the River Bonnet looking for Melissa's body.
She said she was scared at the time and they did not go home until 3am.
Earlier another daughter of Ronnie Dunbar, Samantha Conroy, gave evidence to the court.
Ms Conroy denied that she helped strangle the 14-year-old girl.
Instead, she said she had tried to resuscitate the deceased.
She said she never asked her father what had happened at the time because she was afraid of him.
