A Central Criminal Court murder trial has been told that a farmer didn't show much emotion when gardaí arrived at the scene in Co. Galway, after his aunt died as a result of him running over her with a teleporter.

It is the prosecution case that Michael Scott (58) deliberately ran over his aunt Christine 'Chrissie' Treacy following a long-running dispute over land.

Scott of Gortanumera, Portumna, Co. Galway has pleaded not guilty to her murder on April 27, 2018 outside her home in Derryhiney, Portumna. The defence says that Chrissie Treacy's death was a tragic accident.

The trial heard today (Thursday, February 16) from the first garda who arrived at the scene after the incident that the flesh of Michael Scott's 76-year-old aunt was completely ripped from one of her forearms and lay strewn in the yard in front of her home.

Sgt. Gerard Cleary told the court that Scott "didn't appear to be showing much emotion" when officers arrived at the farm where Scott says he had accidentally run over his aunt in an agricultural teleporter.

Sgt. Cleary told the court that he noticed what he believed to be marks where a wheel from the teleporter was "spun" and had removed the flesh from Chrissie Treacy's left arm.

The garda said he noticed the marks of what appeared to be a wheel of the loader going up along the back of her right leg, across her back and over her left shoulder. He didn't know which direction the tyre had travelled.

Sgt. Cleary said he asked Scott to account for this but the farmer said he couldn't. When Sgt. Cleary asked why Scott did not call emergency services, Sgt. Cleary said the accused told him that he didn't know the number and didn't know that he could dial 999.

Det. Sgt Cleary read from notes taken by Det. Garda O'Gorman of the conversation with Michael Scott at the scene.

Scott told gardaí that the loader had been parked facing into a blue shed at the yard. He said he reversed out and was planning to remove the shear grabs from the front and put on pallet forks that were nearby.

When he felt the "tip" he thought he had hit a trailer and got out to check for damage. He said he saw Chrissie Treacy and shouted "are you alright?". She was moving, he said.

Scott told gardaí he "nearly passed out", didn't know what to do and then phoned his friend and neighbour Francis Hardiman.

Sgt. Cleary asked why he felt the need to stop the machine when he was going to be stopping anyway a few seconds later when he got to where the pallet forks were.

Sgt Cleary added: "With no disrespect, the loader is not exactly new, there is loads of damage and broken glass on it."

Scott told him that he "stopped to check" and that the loader was "not in that bad condition" and the glass had only been broken recently. When the sergeant asked the farmer did he not see his aunt from the teleporter, Scott said he did not, as the "windows are dirty".

Scott said he hadn't met Chrissie Treacy that day and had last spoken to her by phone the previous evening about the lease on the farm. When asked if the lease on the farm had expired, he said, "a few months".

Det. Gda O'Goman told senior counsel Dean Kelly that the first thing he noted Scott saying after being asked to explain what happened was "I don’t know where I am at all. She was out today, any other day".

The trial continues in front of Justice Caroline Biggs and a jury of seven men and eight women.

By Eoin Reynolds