The jury in the trial of two men accused of the murder of Kieran Quilligan has been told that the 47-year-old had been subjected to a violent assault with a hammer-like weapon.
Mr Quilligan's skeletal remains were found in a one-tonne gravel bag on scrub land near Rostellan in east Cork on 29 January last year, five months after he was first reported missing.
Niall Long, 33, formerly of St Michael's Close, Mahon and 27-year-old Luke Taylor, formerly of Cherry Lawn, Blackrock in Cork city have both pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Mr Quilligan on dates unknown between 1 September 2023 and 29 January 2024, at an unknown location within the State in the district court of Cork city, contary to Common Law.
On the opening day of the trial before Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, Prosecution Counsel Donal O'Sullivan SC told the jury of two women and ten men in his opening address that while the prosecution is not in a position to say who landed the blows, the allegation is that this was a joint enterprise where two people embarked on an enterprise to commit a murder.
He said the jury would see alot of CCTV footage of both of the accused and alot of the evidence is circumstantial as there were no eye witnesses.
He told jurors that Mr Quilligan was a user of the Simon Community and lived in an apartment provided by them.
"He was someone who took drugs and was dealing drugs at the time. Niall Long (one of the co-accused) is someone who was a drug user and may have been dealing drugs as well," Mr O'Sullivan said.
Mr O'Sullivan said on the morning of 1 September, Mr Quilligan and another man John Paul Thornton (known as 'Bubbles') robbed and assaulted Mr Long on York Hill.
"It appears this is the instigating factor of what occured later that evening," Mr O'Sullivan said.
It will be the State's case that at around 8pm that evening, the co-accused Luke Taylor was seen with Kieran Quilligan on CCTV leaving his apartment on Anderson's Quay and heading up along the quays towards St Finbarr's Cathedral.
Two people in a house on St Finbarr's Place later reported hearing a violent altercation at around 9pm.
Prosecution Counsel Donal O'Sullivan said CCTV will allegedly show a white Toyota RAV4 car registered to Niall Long's mother driving along Dean Street at the top of St Finbarr's Place.
It will be claimed that the CCTV footage will show it reversing so that the boot of the car is facing down the lane at 9.05pm.
Gardaí conducted a trawl of CCTV footage across Cork city and county and the same car was tracked going to a location in Little Island and afterwards dropping Mr Taylor off at an address at Jacob's Island.
Mr O'Sullivan says Mr Quilligan was never seen alive again.
He was reported missing on 4 September and a garda investigtion began.
He said the jury would also see CCTV footage taken on 4 September which shows Mr Taylor being picked up from the Rochestown Park Hotel at 10.15pm by a white Toyota RAV4, which travelled to a number of locations in east Cork.
On 29 January, a cadaver dog on scrubland at Whitewell, Rostellan, "reacts to an area below the road, wet and damp, not the sort of place anyone would be walking", Mr O'Sullivan said.
There gardaí found a one-tonne gravel bag. Underneath it was a second bag inside which were skeletal human remains later identified as Kieran Quilligan's.
Prosecution Counsel Donal O'Sullivan said post-mortem examination results revealed that while most of the soft tissue was gone, there was a large number of skeletal injuries.
"This man was badly beaten. A weapon appears to have been used in the nature of a hammer," he said.
"He met his death in a violent manner".
Before his remains were found, a search was carried out on 15 September 2023 of Mr Long's home, and a car, as well as a bucket with cleaning products were seized. Blood was found, which matched to Kieran Quilligan.
Concluding his opening address to the jury, Mr O'Sullivan said that "I don't have direct evidence, an eye witness saying I saw Niall Long or Luke Taylor beat him to death. I don't have that.
"The case is for the most part circumstantial - a man goes missing on 1 September, found on 29 January, most likely he died on 1 September."
The trial continues before Ms Justice Lankford, who indicated on Monday that it could last until the end of the month.
