Damien Heagney: Diver who recovered man's dismembered remains from reservoir gives evidence at murder trial

A diver who recovered the remains of a man from a reservoir gave evidence at his murder trial today.

Damien Heagney was last seen alive at the end of December 2021. The 47-year old, from Cookstown in Co Tyrone, was reported missing in July 2022 and the following month his dismembered remains were located in Cappagh reservoir.

Stephen McCourt, 41, from Riverview in Augher, denies murdering Mr Heagney between December 29, 2021 and January 7, 2022.

A commercial diver was called to give evidence at the second day of the murder trial and confirmed that after his supervisor was contacted by the PSNI, he attended Cappagh Reservoir on the morning of August 10, 2022.

He said prior to entering the water, police at the scene said gave a briefing saying the search was for potential human remains, keys, weapons, a blood-stained carpet and possibly a dog.

The diver said following this, he entered the water and began making sweeping arcs. When asked by Crown barrister Gary McHugh KC what he observed, the diver said that whilst there was "very bad visibility" and that he "couldn't see much", he said: "I was going through the reeds and something hit my leg. I looked down and there was a foot. I realised I has found human remains."

The diver said he made the discovery within around 10 minutes of entering the reservoir and that upon further inspection, he could see the remains were "wrapped in fence wire around the knees."

Telling the jury at Belfast Crown Court that the remains were part of a human body that appeared to have been "cut in half", the diver said they were located close to the bed of the reservoir.

The diver said following the discovery, he informed people on the shore and shouted a codeword that indicated he had found a body.

He was then told to continue performing sweeping arcs in the water and said "almost straight away" he found "what appeared to be a white bag that was wrapped in the same fencing wire that was round the legs of the first find."

When asked by Mr McHugh "could you see if anything was in the bag?", the diver said he "couldn't see anything in the bag." Following the discoveries of the two 'finds', the diver said he exited the water. When asked what happened next, he said: "A policeman came along and told me to get back into my gear and go back and retrieve the legs and the bag."

Mr McHugh then asked about the 'first find' and the diver said "the feet were facing each other, which was unusual." He told the court that after retrieving the items from the water, a bid was made to "hide what we could" from press photographers who had gathered at the scene as "we didn't want any pictures" due to "respect for the family" of the deceased.

The diver said a tent was erected and the remains were placed in a body bag. Following this, the remains were removed from the scene by undertakers and transported to the morgue in Belfast.

It's the Crown's case that Mr Heagney was last seen alive at the end of December 2021 and the last use of his mobile phone was at the start of January 2022 when he was in contact with McCourt.

Blood matching that of the deceased was also found in McCourt's then home at McGartland Terrace in Dromore and a man who the Crown say was McCourt was also seen loading a carpet bearing a dark stain into his white Berlingo van.

During today's hearing, the jury of seven women and five men also heard evidence from a police constable who spoke to Mr Heagney at a forest park in Cookstown on Christmas Day 2021.

The policeman said he stopped Mr Heagney in his BMW and asked to check his driving licence, and that during this he located several Pregablin tablets which he said were a Class C drug. The constable said Mr Heagney was "very irate" at being stopped and searched on Christmas Day, said the Pregablin had been prescribed to him and provided the name of a pharmacy.

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