'DOG LED COPS TO HUMAN REMAINS ON ISLAND'

A DOG handler has told a double murder trial how his specially trained German Shepherd gave him "an indication" at tarpaulin covered in undergrowth where the bodies of two missing men would be found.

- BY ALISON O'RIORDAN

The hearing has further heard an arm “with a bit of clothing on it” fell out when a scene of crimes officer later cut open the tarpaulin on the lake island.

A fisherman also told the trial of Ruth Lawrence, who is accused of murdering the duo over a decade ago, he noticed a “dreadful smell coming off” on Lough Sheelin which he associated with “rotten flesh” a month after they went missing.

Lawrence, 45, originally from Clontarf in Dublin but with an address at Patricks Cottage, Ross, Mountnugent in Co Meath has pleaded not guilty.

She is accused of murdering Anthony Keegan, 33, and 32-year-old Eoin O'Connor at an unknown location between April 22, 2014 and May 26, 2014.

Pat Smith told Michael O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, he was in a boat on Lough Sheelin with another man on May 18, 2014. Mr Smith said they took a break and had moved “in close” to Inchicup island on the lake “for cover”.

The witness said he had noticed a “dreadful smell coming off the island”.

Mr Smith said he got suspicious was as the previous week he had seen The Garda Water Unit “diving elsewhere” for the “two bodies, the missing men”.