The Romanian accused of murdering a 64-year-old man in the garden of an abandoned house in Cork said two men armed with a sword and a knife made him put the remains under a bush – and that night he slept in the derelict house and prayed.

This was part of the account given by Ionut Cosmin Nicholescu to Bucharest police, accompanied by his Romanian lawyer, and in the presence a team of detectives from Anglesea Street garda station – detectives Katrine Tansley, Brian Maher, Liam Lynch and Garda Razvan Ghetau, and Chief Superintendent Vincent O’Sullivan – who travelled to Bucharest for this purpose in January 2020.

Mr Nicholescu said two men armed with a machete sword and a knife made him move the severed remains of the deceased under a bush at the house on Boreenmanna Road, before they walked away leaving him alone with the remains of the deceased in the garden.

He said he went to a nearby park and stayed there for an hour or two. He returned to the derelict house through the front and went to the upstairs room in the house where he had been staying. He kept food and personal hygiene products there and had several blankets.

“I tried to wash myself. I realised I had no water. The water can was still by the entrance gate. I cleaned myself using the sink and tub of the bathroom.

“I went through my routine. I prayed. I went through my phone for a while. I tried to read my book. I didn’t talk to anyone. I had no idea what to tell the police,” he said.

At a later time when he saw garda cars and officers at the derelict house, “I went to see if what happened to me was actually real. I asked a policeman what happened. He said there was a body there. A person from a TV station – I spoke to that person. He might have got me on camera. He aimed the camera at me.” 

Mr Nicholescu said he called to his former boyfriend and asked him if he heard on the news about what happened at the property on Boreenmanna Road. Later his former boyfriend told the accused that police visited him asking for contact information for Mr Nicholescu.

He explained why he left the country days after the remains of Mr Dunne were found. 

“I was afraid I could go to jail for something I did not do,” he said.

At the close of the Bucharest statement he made some additional comments after presenting his account of what happened including the assertion that “both men were wearing black gloves” and that, “I was one or two metres from the body when the red-bearded man cut off the head.” 

Just as Mr Nicholescu previously told the chief superintendent in phone calls of two armed men in the garden with the deceased before he arrived back from Aldi with some provisions on Friday night, December 27 2019, he gave a similar account in his Bucharest statement.