Ex-Garda convicted of criminal damage to a prehistoric stone circle

thejournal.ie wrote:

Ex-Garda ‘likely to have disturbed human remains’ at protected monument

A RETIRED GARDA is likely to have “removed and disturbed human remains” when he damaged a Bronze Age burial mound in County Wicklow, a court has heard.
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Archeologist Chris Corlett told the court he visited the site on May 6, 2011 and noticed obvious disturbances within the burial chamber and that stones had been recently dislodged and moved.
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Mr Corlett told Paul Murray BL, prosecuting, that he had visited the 4,000-year-old site over 20 times in the last decade.

He said there was evidence of at least one burial chamber or compartment which would have contained urns of the cremated remains of local people buried over thousands of years and their accompanying “grave goods”.

“We could expect to find highly-decorated pottery food vessels, amber beads and metal artefacts of very rare and international significance,” said Mr Corlett.

The site is protected under the National Monuments Act by a Preservation Order laid down by former Environment Minister Dick Roche in 2005.