Diver recalls recovering Damien Heagney's body

A diver who recovered Damien Heagney's body from a reservoir in County Tyrone has given evidence at the trial of a man accused of his murder.

Stephen McCourt, 41, of Riverview in Augher, is accused of murdering Mr Heagney between 30 December 2021 and 6 January 2022.

The remains of 47-year-old Mr Heagney were recovered from a reservoir in Cappagh in August 2022.

He was last seen in Dromore on New Year’s Eve in 2021.

The commercial diver told Belfast Crown Court his supervisor was contacted by the police in August 2022 about the search.

He said when he arrived at the scene with his colleagues they initially “thought it was just a van recovery” but were told they were “looking for human remains”.

The diver said he was also told to look for “keys, weapons, blood stained carpet and maybe a dog”.

He told the court about 10 minutes into the dive he felt something hit his leg

"I looked down and there was a foot. I realised I’d found human remains," he said.

The diver described seeing a pair of feet wrapped in “fencing wire” and could see “the body was cut in half”.

Under questioning from a prosecution lawyer, he explained the discovery was almost on the bed of the reservoir, about a foot from the bottom.

He told the court he was instructed to continue the search after telling his colleagues that he had found a body.

The diver said he then found what appeared to be a white bag wrapped in fence wire, but was not able to see anything inside the bag.

After getting out of the water, he said a police officer asked him retrieve what he had found.

The diver said a tent was erected and the remains were placed in a body bag.

A crime scene investigator, who was also giving evidence, told the court the remains were placed in two body bags and taken to Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

A police officer who came into contact with Damien Heagney on Christmas Day 2021 also gave evidence.

He said, while on patrol, he saw a car leave Tullyhogue Fort car park, Cookstown, at speed at about 17:15 GMT, as he entered it.

When the constable pulled the vehicle over, he said the driver, Mr Heagney, had an "extremely aggressive” tone when asked about insurance information and to ascertain why he was there.

The officer said he believed he could see tablets in the central console of Mr Heagney’s vehicle and was concerned they were class C controlled drugs.

He said he searched Mr Heagney after colleagues arrived and “located some loose pregabalin tablets which are a class C controlled substance”.

When asked whether they were prescribed, Mr Heagney named two different doctors that may have prescribed the tablets who worked at “practice 400”.

He added Mr Heagney also indicated he had been living in his car.

The tablets were seized in order to ascertain whether they were a prescription and Mr Heagney was cautioned, the officer said.

After being unable to establish if "practice 400 was a legitimate surgery” he contacted Mr Heagney in early January to organise an interview but he did not answer.

The court heard how Mr Heagney was listed as "wanted" on police information systems.

The officer added that automatic number plate recognition confirmed that he had moved to a neighbouring police district in Omagh.

He told the court that following a number of inquiries made over six months, he was unable to make contact with Mr Heagney and he believed he was “intentionally trying” to avoid him.

The trial continues.