Trial of man whose skeletal remains found in jute bag start jury deliberations
Olivia Kelleher
The jury at the trial of two men charged with the murder of a 47-year-old man whose skeletal remains were found in a jute bag in a ravine at Rostellan, Co Cork, on January 29th, 2024, have commenced their deliberations.
Niall Long (33) and Luke Taylor (27) went on trial at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork earlier this month, charged with the murder of Kieran Quilligan. Mr Quilligan, who was a native of Togher in Cork city, was last seen alive on September 1st, 2023.
The jury of ten men and two women commenced their deliberations at 2.22pm on Wednesday. Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford spent the morning summarising the eleven days of evidence which went before the jury.
She told them that were dealing with two separate trials and that a verdict for one could be different from the other. The jury were informed that the verdicts needed to be unanimous in nature.
Ms Justice Lankford also told the jurors that they could find each man guilty of murder, not guilty of murder, or not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
Meanwhile, in the course of the trial, the jurors heard evidence from Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, who carried out a postmortem examination on the remains of Mr Quilligan at Cork University Hospital in January 2024.
Dr Bolster indicated that an exact cause of death could not be established because decomposition had led to the loss of organs.
However, she said that the injuries suffered by Mr Quilligan were consistent with a “severe assault.” Those injuries included fractures to his ribs, leg and hand bones, jaw bones and skull.
Dr Bolster said whilst the remains were skeletonised, there was a small piece of skin remaining which consisted of a tattoo with the word “Mother” and a date. An inscription was illegible. The skull was separate from the body and there was a large amount of silt and vegetation.
The jury heard evidence from 47 witnesses and watched hundreds of video clips. Prosecution counsel Donal O’Sullivan, SC, noted that the jury had viewed a “staggering amount” of CCTV footage. Over the course of three days of evidence, they watched 433 video clips.
Niall Long, formerly of St Michael’s Close, in Mahon in Cork, and Luke Taylor, previously of Cherry Lawn in Blackrock went on trial on October 8th charged with the murder of Mr Quilligan. Both men deny murder.
The charge facing both accused is that the murder was carried out on a date unknown between September 1st, 2023 and January 29th, 2024, at an unknown location within the state of the District Court area of Cork city.
