Hi °C | Lo °C A senior police officer has told a murder trial of the grim scene at the location where the body of 25-year-old victim Shirley Finlay was found.
The young woman had been strangled and beaten, her body wrapped in a duvet and bin liners, and left in a car park in Ballymena where it was found in September 2006.
Henryk Gorski, a former meat plant worker from Poland, is accused of her murder.
Constable Mervyn Douglas told Antrim Crown Court this morning: “The duvet appeared to be knotted at one end and there appeared to be what I would describe as a bin liner covering one end and another bin liner partially covering the other end.”
He looked at the body at the scene through an incision which was made in the duvet by a colleague.
“On looking inside there appeared to be a woman’s body and a grey coloured fleece, and several bits of clothing and what appeared to be a red top.
“The female appeared to have blond hair, but I couldn’t see her face.”
Asked if her body was marked, Constable Douglas said: “There appeared to be marks across the chest...her right hand appeared to have blood on it.
“One of the other things I observed would be what I would describe as a home made tattoo with the letters M and U.”
At hearing.
