Murder accused claimed to have found evidence partner was in incestuous relationship, jury hears

A grave digger alleged to a social worker that he found evidence on a phone that his partner, who he is now on trial accused of murdering, was having an incestuous relationship with a relative, a jury has heard.

The Central Criminal Court also heard on Friday that gardaí received an email which included screenshots taken from Amadea McDermott’s phone of text messages between her and the accused Martin Hayes.

Ms McDermott told the accused in one of those messages: “I’m sick of ur accusations and ur sick thoughts, I’m not getting abused by you every few days.”

She also told the accused in another message: “You can’t admit you are not well and need help”, the trial has heard.

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Mr Hayes (34), with an address at Poddle Close, Crumlin, Dublin 12 has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms McDermott (27), a mother of two at her home in Rathvale Drive, Ayrfield, Coolock on or about July 20th, 2017.

The trial has heard that the accused told emergency services who arrived at Ms McDermott’s home that she had self-harmed by stabbing herself. However, a woman who later went out with the accused has given evidence that Mr Hayes told her he had “helped” Ms McDermott put a knife she was holding through her stomach.

A garda witness has told the jury that the deceased’s sister, Eucharia McDermott, alleged that Mr Hayes had been physically abusive to Amadea in the past.

Social worker Ciara Lumsden on Friday told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, that she met with Mr Hayes and his mother in the social work department in Coolock on August 25th 2017. Ms Lumsden asked the accused about the circumstances of Amadea’s death and he said there had been an argument that evening.

The witness said Mr Hayes alleged that he had found evidence on WhatsApp on a phone that Amadea was having an incestuous relationship with a relative. The accused told Ms Lumsden that the couple began to argue and that he had walked away.

Ms Lumsden said the accused told her that Ms McDermott was on the floor with a puncture wound when he went back into the room to check on her. The witness said the accused told her that it had taken a little while to locate his phone but when he did he had called the ambulance.

Detective Garda Niall Gibbs told Michael D Hourigan BL, prosecuting, that Mr Hayes was invited to Coolock Garda station on July 21st 2017 to make a statement in relation to his partner’s death. In the statement, the accused said he had worked as a grave digger in Mount Jerome for the last six or seven years and that he was going out with Amadea for the previous ten years. He said they met on the social networking platform Bebo and had two children together.

He said on the night of July 19th he told

Ms McDermott he was leaving her. He said she slapped him in the face and he slapped her back. He said Ms McDermott grabbed a knife from the kitchen and he said “I don’t give a f**k anymore, I’m going” before he went to bed. He said Ms McDermott had stood at the bedroom door with the knife so he grabbed a machete.

Mr Hayes said he told Ms McDermott: “I couldn’t give a f**k what you do, you have lost me”. He said Ms McDermott told him that he was going to lose the best thing in his life and went back into the sitting room. The accused said he saw a leg from the sitting room door and blood on the floor. He rang 112 and spoke to the paramedics before she was brought to hospital.

Detective Sergeant Anthony Maloney told Mr Hourigan, prosecuting, that he received an email from the deceased’s sister Eucharia McDermott in November 2019, which included screenshots taken from Amadea’s phone of text messages between her and the accused.

Amadea told the accused in one of those messages from July 2017: “I’m sick of ur accusations and ur sick thoughts, I’m not getting abused by you every few days.”

Beauty therapist Dawn Teelan told Mr Gillane that Amadea and her sister Euphrasia had booked to get a spray tan in a salon on July 14th 2017.

Ms Teelan agreed with counsel that when Amadea went in for her spray tan she got a shock because she saw an amount of bruises on her body.

The witness also agreed that she had spoken spontaneously to Amadea and said “what happened to you”. Ms Teelan said Amadea told her that “her little lad” had been “jumping all over her”. The witness agreed that Amadea had “old yellowish bruises all over” her breasts and chest and fresh bruising on her back. She also said there was extensive bruising on the right side of Amadea’s lower back and upper back.

Ms Teelan said she did not accept how these bruises had been caused and felt that a four-year-old child could not have been the cause. “It was that bad I thought she was going to tell me she had been in a car crash,” said the witness.

The deceased’s mother Margaret Heffernan, who had to be pushed to the stand in her wheelchair by her daughter, told Mr Gillane that she is a mother-of-eight and would have seen Amadea regularly. . Under cross-examination, Ms Heffernan told defence counsel Marc Thompson Grolimund BL that Amadea was a devoted mother and a beautiful girl, who had plans for the future. She also agreed she had told gardaí that she would not accept that Amadea had taken her own life.

“I will not accept that, never,” she told the jury.

The trial continues on Tuesday before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of eight men and four women.