Man on trial over car park murder

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A man has gone on trial accusing of murdering a County Antrim woman nearly three years ago.

The partially-clothed body of Shirley Finlay, 24, was found wrapped in a duvet and bound with bin bags in a car park in September 2006.

Henryk Gorski, 51, of Hill Street in Ballymena, but originally from Poland, denies murdering Ms Finlay between 17 September 2006 and 20 September 2006.

Antrim Crown Court heard she had been strangled.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Richard Weir QC, said a post mortem also showed Ms Finlay had been beaten about the face.

A jury of five men and seven women heard the case was based on circumstantial evidence; that the accused's fingerprints had been found on the bin liners and DNA from his former lover was found on a grey jacket discarded at the scene.

The jury also heard that carpet fibres and paint from his flat were found on items covering the body.

Mr Weir said that while the accused suggested to police an "erstwhile lover" had framed him, he could not explain how his fingerprints got on the bin bags nor any of other "hard facts" linking him to Ms Finlay's body.

Earlier, Mr Weir said that Ms Finlay, had "an unhappy background, having spent time in care and in foster care".

Ms Finlay's body was found wrapped in a duvet in a car park in Ballymena

He said she was last seen alive in and around Ballymena and near the doorway of Mr Gorski's flat the night before her body was found.

The alarm was initially raised by a man who spotted a suspicious bundle in Hill Street car park the following afternoon and reported the matter to his boss in work who contacted police. It was later found to contain a body.

Besides Ms Finlay's body, two items of clothing, a red top and a grey coloured fleece along with a pink towel were also found with her, as was a discarded grey coloured jacket recovered nearby.

When the black bin bags were examined five marks, found on the outside, were matched to Gorski's left fore finger, his left little finger, his right palm and his right middle finger.

Mr Weir also revealed that on the duvet cover grey paint fragments were recovered which matched those from a satellite dish found in the flat as did flakes of paint found on the floors, roof and a pushchair.

The court also heard that fibres were found on the pink towel which were similar to fibres taken from two different carpets in the flat.

On the carpet in the hallway, police also found a strand of dyed blonde hair which was consistent with, and gave a partial DNA match with Ms Finlay's hair.

The trial is expected to take up to nine weeks to complete, as all of the evidence has to be translated into Polish as Mr Gorski does not understand English.