Damien Heagney murder trial told “residual piece of metal” like a knife found embedded in skull

A “residual piece of metal” consistent with the blade of a knife was found embedded in the skull of Cookstown man Damien Heagney, a jury heard today (Wednesday).

On the third day of a trial being held in Belfast Crown Court, the state pathologist who carried out a post mortem on the dismembered remains of Mr Heagney was called to give evidence.

Dr James Lynas concluded it was not possible to determine the cause of Mr Heagney’s death due to “dismemberment and decomposition”.

The post mortem also revealed there were “defects” to the deceased’s head which were “consistent with stab wounds” and that a piece of metal was retrieved from his skull.

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

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. The jury has already heard that on August 10, 2022 a commercial diver recovered two packages from Cappagh reservoir. One package contained severed arms and a head whilst the other contained a pair of severed legs.

The human remains were removed from the scene by an undertaker and transported to the morgue situated in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. A post mortem was conducted by Dr Lynas on August 11, 2022 and he was called to give evidence about this today.

Questioned by Crown barrister Gary McHugh KC, Dr Lynas confirmed that he received the two packages containing the remains “believed to be Damien Heagney” and that identification was “confirmed over the following days”.

When asked if he was able to come to a conclusion about the cause of death, Dr Lynas said: “I couldn’t gave a definitive cause of death but I provided a descriptive cause of death, which was ‘unascertained due to dismemberment and decomposition’.”

Mr McHugh then posed several questions to the pathologist regarding a 12-page report he compiled on the post mortem. Dr Lynas revealed all the human remains he received were put through a CT scanner and were “towards the severe end of the spectrum of decomposition”.

Concerning the skull, the pathologist said half of the neck was attached to the head. He said that upon examination, he noted multiple “defects” on the skin of head which he said “were consistent with stab wounds”.

Dr Lynas said these defects were “in the shape of a knife” and also revealed “a residual piece of metal” was “embedded” in the skull “towards the back of the head”.

When asked by Mr McHugh “did you retrieve this bit of metal?”, Dr Lynas replied “yes ... the piece of metal was triangular shaped, it was silver in colour and it certainly was potentially consistent with the tip of a blade from a knife”.

Mr McHugh then asked if he could determine “the degree of force that may have been required to cause or inflict those defects?” and the pathologist said it would have been “at least moderate force”.

He added it was not possible to determine if these wounds had occurred before or after death. Regarding the left and right arms, Dr Lynas said they were both “completely detached from the body” and the remains he examined went from the hands up to the shoulder joint.

These limbs, Dr Lynas said, also bore defects which were “suggestive of additional stab wounds”. He added: “I can’t exclude that these occurred after death.”

During the post mortem, Dr Lynas examined the right and left legs with the separated limbs extending from the feet up to the femur bone. He told the jury “a number of defects were identified in the skin of both legs” which he said were probably attributed to “dismemberment and/or decomposition”.

Mr McHugh asked Dr Lynas if the dismemberment of the body occurred after death and he replied: “In my opinion, yes the dismemberment occurred after death.”

Dr Lynas also confirmed that it was likely death was caused “by some unnatural event”.

The pathologist was then addressed by defence barrister Des Fahy KC who put forward four “propositions”.

Dr Lynas agreed it was not possible to determine a date of death as a result of the post mortem and when asked if this could have occurred “outside the timeframe of the 29th of December 2021 to the 7th of January, 2022”, he replied “yes”.

The pathologist also agreed it was not possible to determine a cause of death and accepted it was not possible to conclude when the dismemberment of the body occurred or when the body was placed in the reservoir.

At hearing

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