The man accused of murdering mother-of-two Lisa Thompson was recognised on CCTV footage near the deceased's home on the night of the killing by two gardaí from his "big physical stature", "protruding ears" and "very distinctive walking gait", a trial has heard.
However, a Detective Inspector who facilitated the identification process denied to defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC that the "impartiality and independence" that makes such a process valuable hadn't happened in this case.
The jury has heard that Ms Thompson and the accused Brian McHugh (40), had a "bit of a fling" in the year before she died.
Evidence has also been given to the Central Criminal Court trial that gardaí searching Ms Thompson's home found thousands of prescription tablets worth nearly €50,000 hidden in her attic.
Mr McHugh with an address at Cairn Court, Poppintree, Ballymun in Dublin 11, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Thompson (52) at Sandyhill Gardens, Ballymun in Dublin 11 on May 9th 2022.
In her opening speech, counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions Fiona Murphy SC said Ms Thompson's body was found inside the door of her home with multiple stab wounds to the chest and a window blind cord wrapped around the neck.
She said the 12 jurors would hear that a mixed DNA profile was found on the blind cord, to which the accused man couldn't be excluded as a minor contributor.
A pathologist has also given evidence that Ms Thompson's death occurred because of a combination of ligature strangulation causing asphyxia and multiple stab wounds to the left side of the chest.
Detective Garda Cathal Connolly, who is attached to Dublin Airport Garda Station, told Ms Murphy on Tuesday that he has worked in the 'H District' since 2005 to the present day, which included the Ballymun area.
He said he was posted to Ballymun Garda Station for 16 years and whilst there, came to know a large number of local residents.
The detective said he attended Clontarf Garda Station on May 15th 2022 and met with Detective Inspector Donnacha Maguire, where he viewed ten clips of CCTV footage on a laptop from May 9th 2022, which related to an ongoing investigation.
The detective said it was in the first clip of CCTV footage, which was today played to the jury, where he had recognised the accused man Brian McHugh.
The jury has previously watched CCTV footage where a man is seen walking out of Marewood Crescent in Ballymun into Sandyhill Gardens followed by a Hyundai vehicle at 1.27am on May 9th.
It is the prosecution's case that the man in the CCTV footage is the accused Brian McHugh.
Det Gda Connolly told the prosecutor that he wasn't able to identify any individual in the other nine clips.
The witness said that since 2005 and to the present day he had met, engaged with and observed Mr McHugh on multiple occasions through his police work. He said the accused was around 40 years of age, had a big physical stature and was approximately six-foot tall.
He added: "I described him as having prominent or protruding ears that made him very distinguished looking to me. He does have swallow tattoos on his hands, I forgot to include that at the time".
The detective said he had been in the estate which featured in the first CCTV clip "several hundred times".
Under cross-examination by Mr Grehan, Det Gda Connolly agreed he had been involved in the investigation and took statements from a number of people two days prior to viewing the CCTV footage, which included witness Sandra McMahon.
Witness and neighbour Sandra McMahon previously told the murder trial that Ms Thompson was dealing tablets from her house and believed she had "maybe five or six" customers.
She said Ms Thompson sold the tablets for €15 per tray.
The detective told Mr Grehan he was aware the accused was a person of interest in the investigation at the time he conducted the recognition exercise and it was confirmed to him that Mr McHugh was "an ex" of Ms Thompson or that they had "some relationship in the past"
Asked whether he had said any of this to Det Insp Maguire - who had facilitated the identification process - so he would have an idea he was involved in the investigation, the detective said he hadn't.
"It must have triggered something when watching the footage that it must have had something to do with Lisa Thompson?" asked Mr Grehan. The witness said "afterwards" it had.
"No, at the time?" pressed counsel. The detective told Mr Grehan he wasn't prejudiced when he had conducted the exercise and couldn't recall whether he had recognised the date on the footage.
He said he recognised the location in the footage and agreed he had been "up and down there over the course of the previous number of days dealing with the investigation".
The detective further agreed he knew Mr McHugh's address "off by heart" before he had carried out the exercise.
"I'm suggesting to you it stretches incredulity that you didn't know precisely why you were there on May 15th; it was to pick out Brian McHugh?" asked Mr Grehan. The officer said it was to establish identity and agreed he had been the only garda who had done so in regards to the recognition process.
In re-examination, Det Gda Connolly told the prosecutor it wasn't indicated to him what the CCTV footage related to before he had attended at Clontarf Garda Station.
The next witness, Sergeant Michael Harkin, told Ms Murphy that separate to the identification process, he had prepared an interview plan for suspects in the case and as part of that he had read statements and viewed CCTV footage.
The witness said he had recognised Mr McHugh as the person in the CCTV clip from 1.27am on May 9th.
The Sergeant said he had come across the accused on numerous occasions and had various face-to-face interactions with him. He said he had recognised Mr McHugh from his side profile, that he had a "very distinctive walking gait" and had seen him walking on numerous occasions.
Asked about other footage taken from Applegreen service station on St Margaret's Road in Swords after 3am that morning, the witness said he recognised the accused in the footage. He said the accused was visible in "numerous pieces of CCTV footage".
Earlier, Det Inspector Donnacha Maguire, who facilitated the independent identification process, said he wasn't aware that Det Gda Connolly had taken statements from two female witnesses in the case two days before the process took place.
The detective said he was given a list of 45 names and 40 of them had been contacted. He agreed Det Gda Connolly was 34th on the list but yet he had contacted him first as he had been previously attached to Ballymun Garda Station and had "a good local knowledge".
In summary, Mr Grehan put it to the witness that an identification process is only as good as the people carrying out the task and that it is their impartiality and independence that makes the identification "so valuable", which simply didn't happen here.
The detective said it had, disagreeing.
The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Karen O'Connor and a jury of four men and eight women.
