A CHEF who was jailed for life for the murder of a homeless man who was found partially dismembered and headless in the grounds of a derelict house appeared in court today.
Ionut Cosmin Nicholescu told a three-judge panel at the Cork Court of Criminal Appeal today that an application by his legal team to come off record in his appeal against the murder conviction was a “misunderstanding”.
Ionut Cosmin Nicholescu appeared in the Central Appeals Court sitting in Cork[/caption]
Nicholescu, a native of Branistea in Romania, appeared in person in court accompanied by a Romanian interpreter.
In March 2023, a jury found him guilty of the murder of Frankie Dunne, whose remains were found by a man out searching for his missing cat.
His trial heard that the head of the 64-year-old was found in a bag on the grounds of Castlegreine House in Boreenmanna Road in Cork on December 28, 2019.
His body was found under a tree and his arms, which had been removed from his body, were “draped over the branch of a tree”.
Brian Mulvany, BL, made an application to the court today for both him and Phelim O’Neill Solicitors to come off record in relation to Nicholescu’s case.
He said there had been engagement with solicitors in Romania regarding the case.
But Nicholescu said there was a “misunderstanding” and his family had acted on their own.
He said: “I’m not happy with the situation. That Romanian firm is not acting on my behalf. My family need documents. It is not my will. They want to do some enquiry here. I cannot keep them away. This was a big misunderstanding.”
He said he wanted to keep his Irish legal representation, stating his family had been concerned about him but that they had not acted at his request.
He added that he had not signed a contract with the Romanian solicitors.
CLAIMS IN TRIAL
Mr Mulvany said he was happy, given the clarification provided, to withdraw the application for him and the solicitors to come off the record.
Nicholescu had no previous convictions prior to being found guilty of murder.
His account of what had occurred was that he stumbled upon two men who had carried out the murder when making his way into a derelict period house in which he was squatting.
He claimed in police interviews in Romania that the two men had made him bag the remains of Mr Dunne.
‘COMICALLY EVIL’
However, Ray Boland SC for the prosecution told the murder trial that the “two phantoms” were like “baddies out of central casting”.
He said: “They are comically evil, both bearded, one carrying a machete, one carrying a knife.”
Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that the evidence at the trial was at times “gruesome” and “distressing” in nature.
Imposing a mandatory life sentence on Nicholescu, he said the defendant had shown “shocking disrespect” to Mr Dunne by not only killing but dismembering him.
BODY COULD HAVE REMAINED UNDISCOVERED
Mr Dunne had been “bludgeoned by a bottle and strangled” until he was rendered unconscious.
Nicholescu, who had worked at the Silver Key Pub in Cork city, had fled to his native Romania following the murder.
He was brought back to Ireland in September 2021 on foot of a European Arrest Warrant.
The murder trial heard that Mr Dunne’s body could have remained undiscovered in bushes in the property only for a local man, who had received a call from his wife who was worried about their missing cat called Mouse.
‘FOREVER HAUNTED’
The man said that he had lived in the area for over 20 years but had never set foot in the garden of Castlegreine House on Boreenmanna Road until that afternoon.
Initially, he said he was in disbelief at what he saw under a bush in and thought it was a mannequin or a holy statue.
In a victim impact statement from the Dunne family, they said that Frankie was a loving father, grandfather, uncle and friend.
They stressed that they would “forever be haunted” by how their loved one had died.
SICK JOKE
They said Frankie was “mutilated and left abandoned”.
The trial had heard that Nicholescu made a joke to a co-worker about the circumstances surrounding the death of the father-of-three.
It heard he said: “Imagine if the cat ripped off the head.”
The family said that the ‘humour’ used by the offender was “insulting, disturbing and sickening”.
Frankie was residing in a dry house for persons suffering from alcohol addiction in the months before his death. He also received support from his family.
