The Romanian man accused of murder where a dismembered body was found in Cork told investigators by phone from Bucharest days later: “I don’t want to go to prison because of this. I would rather die under the f***ing rock. I did not kill the guy.” 

Recordings of this and other phone calls were played at the trial before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of eight women and four men at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.

Ionut Cosmin Nicholescu, 30, with an address at Branistea Village, Damovita County, Romania is on trial charged with the murder of 64-year-old Francis (Frankie) Dunne between Friday December 27 and Saturday December 28 2019, at Castlegreine House, Boreenmanna Road, Cork.

Chief Superintendent Vincent O’Sullivan testified that he got a number of phone calls from the accused man, some of them from Bucharest in the days after Mr Dunne’s remains were found.

The jury heard the contents of the calls where one commenced with the accused saying: “I am not coming back to Ireland. I am f***ed up. I am scared. 

"I have been living in that house a month. What I want to tell you is I was working all the time. I am not a murderer or a bad guy.” 

He clarified that he had been living in the abandoned Castlegreine House since November 2019.

“I lived in the attic in the restaurant (Silver Key),” he also said.

“What happened with the dead guy is this. I was in Aldi the day it happened… I went to that f***ing house. When I opened the door I was drinking milk. I didn’t see anything kind of weird but after I locked the gate I walked towards the house. I heard some steps. Somebody was in behind me holding a big sword like a machete.

“He said to me to shut the f*** up. I didn’t know how to react. Because sometimes you do what they want, they leave you alone. 

"I said I don’t want to die. I said don’t hit me with the sword. He said to me to come with him. If I do something he was going to bust my head.

“He said to me to go into a porch near the front door. On the porch there was someone there – a small guy, you understand me. The guy with the machete was there with a hipster beard. The other guy was kind of smaller, not as small as me. The second guy had a big knife, not small like a razor.

“I saw the guy when I looked on the ground. It was another guy with no pants. I saw some top clothes but no pants. It was my first time in the back yard. It is kind of a door in the wall. They asked me to drag the body to that door and up behind there. They cut the body.” 

Chief Supt O’Sulllivan asked on the phone call: “How did they cut the body?” The accused replied: “They f***ing cut it.” 

Then asked: “What did they cut the body with?” He replied: “The guy with the knife. The other guy with the machete was behind me. They told me to put the parts in a black bag and to throw them in the bush. It is a big bush. I go there. They give me the head… 

“They said f*** him in the bush – that means push him in the bush. I went into the bush.” 

He said the two men he described went away. He said he had €6,000 cash which he could give to the family of “the dead guy”.

“I don’t want to go to prison because of this. I would rather die under the f***ing rock. I did not kill the guy. I swear on my dick,” he said on one call.

The trial continues.