A diver who recovered the remains of Damien Heagney, 47, from Cookstown, from a reservoir in Co Tyrone, has given evidence at his trial for murder.

Mr Heagney was last seen alive in late December 2021. He was reported missing in July 2022 and the following month his dismembered remains were located in Cappagh Reservoir.

Stephen McCourt (41), of Riverview in Augher, has been charged with and has denied murdering Mr Heagney on an unknown date between December 29, 2021 and January 7, 2022.

The commercial driver was called to give evidence on the second day of the murder trial and confirmed that, after his supervisor was contacted by the PSNI, he attended Cappagh Reservoir on the morning of August 10, 2022.

He said that before entering the water, police at the scene said they gave a briefing saying the search was for potential human remains, keys, weapons, a blood-stained carpet and possibly a dog.

The diver said that after this he went into the water and started making sweeping arcs.

Asked by Crown attorney Gary McHugh KC what he noticed, the diver said that although there was “very poor visibility” and he “couldn’t see much”, he said “I was walking through the reeds and something hit me on the leg. I looked down and I had a leg. I realized that I had found human remains.”

The diver said he made the discovery within about ten minutes of entering the tank and that on further inspection he could see that the remains were “wrapped in fence wire around the knees”.

Telling the jury at Belfast Crown Court that the remains were part of a human body which appeared to have been “cut in half”, the diver said they were located a foot above the bed of the tank.

The diver said that following the discovery, he informed the people on the shore and shouted a code word indicating that he had found a body.

He was then told to continue making sweeping arcs in the water and said “almost immediately” he found “what appeared to be a white bag that was wrapped in the same fence wire that was around the feet of the first find.”

When asked by Mr McHugh “were you able to see if there was anything in the bag?”, the diver said he “couldn’t see anything in the bag”.

Following the discoveries of the two “discoveries”, the diver said he got out of the water. When asked what happened next, he said: “A policeman came and told me to get back into my gear and go back and get the legs and the bag.”

Mr McHugh then asked about the “first discovery” and the diver said “the legs were facing each other, which was unusual”.

He told the court that after retrieving the items from the water, a request was made to “hide what we could” from press photographers who had gathered at the scene “we don’t want any photos” because of “respect for the family” of the deceased.

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

The jury heard that following this, the remains were removed from the scene by undertakers and taken to Belfast Mortuary.