Damien Heagney murder trial will hear of “incomplete” human remains found in reservoir

A jury presiding in a murder trial was today (Monday) told evidence will be heard regarding “incomplete” human remains recovered from a reservoir in Co Tyrone.

As the Crown opened its case at Belfast Crown Court, the seven men and five women of the jury were also told blood matching that of Damien Heagney was located in the flat of the man accused of his murder.

Mr Heagney, 47, was last seen alive at the end of December 2021. The Cookstown man was reported missing in July 2022 and the following month his partially dismembered remains were recovered from the Cappagh reservoir.

Stephen McCourt, 41, from Riverview in Augher has been charged with, and has denied, murdering Mr Heagney on a date unknown between December 29, 2021 and January 7, 2022.

Addressing the jury, Crown prosecutor Gary McHugh said that during the course of the trial - which is expected to last between four and five weeks - that “significant attention” should be given to several pieces of evidence.

Setting out the background to the case, the prosecutor said “Damien Heagney appears to have gone missing” at the end of December 2021/the start of January 2022.

Mr McHugh said the deceased was last seen alive at the end of December 2021 and that his last known “telephone traffic” was on New Years Day, 2022.

After experiencing trouble with his grey BMW, Mr Heagney contacted a vehicle breakdown company on December 30/31 and both he and his vehicle were dropped off close to McGartland Terrace in Dromore. At the relevant time, McCourt resided in a first floor flat at McGartland Terrace.

Regarding Mr Heagney’s phone use, the prosecutor said at the relevant period there was contact between the two men and that the last message Mr Heagney sent was to McCourt at 10.55am on New Year’s Day.

The jury was told evidence will also be heard from staff at a pharmacy who raised concerns as Mr Heagney had stopped picking up his repeat prescription.

This prompted police to search Mr Heagney’s home in Cookstown in July 2022 where officers discovered a pile of unopened mail in the porch area and formed the impression no-one had been in the property for some time.

Mr McHugh also spoke of evidence regarding Cappagh reservoir where dismembered human remains were found by a professional diver on August 10, 2022.

The prosecutor told the jury: “Mr Heagney’s incomplete remains were recovered from the reservoir ... wrapped in a number of coverings. He had been dismembered, the body had been cut into pieces. We say you will hear proof of Damien Heagney’s identity being established.”

Mr McHugh said the day after this discovery, a property linked to McCourt in Dungannon was searched by police who found a pair of bolt cutters in a shed.

A piece of wire found around the human remains was forensically examined and an expert formed the view that these bolt cutters could have cut the wire recovered around sections of the remains.

Continuing his address, Mr McHugh told the jury that McCourt’s flat at McGartland Terrace was also searched by the PSNI.

The prosecutor said: “You will hear how the police conducted a thorough forensic investigation, an examination of the flat where different forensic samples were taken, preserved and analysed.

“One such sample, ladies and gentlemen, was a blood swab obtained from a blood smear on the doorframe of the larger of the two bedrooms in the property.

“This sample was then taken and subjected to forensic analysis ... and we will call evidence that proves that this blood sample matched the blood of Damien Heagney. We say it was his blood.”

The prosecutor said further evidence will be given by a man who lives beside McGartland Terrace.

He said: “This witness will give an account of how he recognised someone he knew as the occupant. He will tell you how, on a particular time, he saw this person who was the occupant of McGartland Terrace loading a carpet into the rear of a van.

“He will say he was approximately five feet from that, when he saw the carpet being loaded into the van, and he observed a big dark stain on the pile of the carpet as it was being loaded into the van. The prosecution case will be that that person was Mr McCourt who was loading the carpet into the van.”

McCourt was subsequently arrested on October 10, 2022 and when he was asked if he had killed Mr Heagney, he replied ‘no I did not’.

The prosecutor said that over the course of several more interviews, “hundreds of questions” were put to him and to virtually all, McCourt replied ‘no comment’.

He did, however, supply a pre-prepared statement during the final interview on October 12, 2022 which said that Mr Heagney had been to McCourt’s flat in Dromore ‘from time to time’.

The statement also referenced other unnamed people who McCourt said had access to and who used vehicles associated with him ‘with and without’ his consent. Mr McHugh said that when all the evidence has been presented, “we say we can prove Mr McCourt murdered Mr Heagney”.

At hearing

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