Courts

Claim by accused that partner took her own life an ‘absolute lie’, trial hears

Jury told that that evidence in case, including other injuries, leads to the ‘irresistible conclusion’ there should be a guilty verdict

Mother-of-two Amadea McDermott (27) was killed in her home in Rathvale Drive, Ayrfield, Coolock in July 2017.

Alison O'Riordan
Paul Neilan
Fri Nov 3 2023 - 18:49

A man accused of murder “planted” the narrative his partner deliberately took her own life in the moments after he stabbed her, offering a version of events the State has told a trial jury is “absolutely a lie”.

Martin Hayes, prosecution counsel said, “had as much contempt for Amadea McDermott in death as he had for her in life” and all the evidence led to the “irresistible conclusion” he had inflicted the fatal injuries.

Sean Gillane SC was delivering his closing speech in the trial of Martin Hayes (34), who is charged with murdering mother-of-two Amadea McDermott (27) at her home in Rathvale Drive, Ayrfield, Coolock on or about July 20th, 2017.

Mr Hayes, with an address at Poddle Close, Crumlin, Dublin 12 has pleaded not guilty to the charge. The trial has heard that the accused told emergency services who arrived at Amadea’s home that the mother-of-two had self-harmed by stabbing herself.

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His defence team said a postmortem examination found that the single stab wound to Ms McDermott’s abdomen could be “consistent with self-harm”.

Rona Munro SC also told the jury that no DNA from Mr Hayes had been found on the knife suspected to have been used to inflict the fatal wound.

Addressing the jury at the outset of his closing speech on Friday, Mr Gillane said he was inviting them to convict Mr Hayes of the crime of murder because the evidence established that he was guilty of it. Counsel asked the jury to consider the evidence in connection with Ms McDermott’s injuries.

Fresh injuries

He said the former State pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy had told them about a lot of old injuries on the deceased but he was asking the jurors to forget about these. He added: “Remember she also told you about fresh injuries to the head and face which she described as blunt force traumas. Injuries to the face were consistent with blows to the face, that says something about the truth of what happened in the apartment that night”.

Furthermore, Mr Gillane said it was not a question of past violence but rather the violence inflicted on Ms McDermott that night, which ultimately brought about her death.”

When you tie it together, it leads to the irresistible conclusion that Mr Hayes inflicted those injuries. They couldn’t have been inflicted by her on the account he has given,” he continued.

The lawyer told the jurors that the obvious lies Mr Hayes had told them when he gave evidence could be exposed when they “drilled down into the last moments” of Ms McDermott’s life.

He said Ms McDermott had been on the phone to the accused’s mother, Esther Hayes, that night and everything was normal.

“On that evening as the clock ticked towards her death, coming up to 10.30pm, closer and closer to the point to which the injury was inflicted, you will see the banal, almost beautiful ordinariness of someone [Ms McDermott] at home trying to organise her makeup for a future event and that is uncontested evidence in the case,” he said.

Mr Gillane said that piece of evidence was important in terms of some of the suggestions that had been “nudged” the jury’s way. He said the jury had been sold a story by Mr Hayes about his partner visiting the doctor in 2013.

He said the accused was saying Ms McDermott had deliberately taken her own life and this was part of the narrative or the story that Mr Hayes had “planted” in the minutes and moments after he inflicted that injury on the deceased.

”You heard his [Mr Hayes] own words when he rings 112 at 00.40, the first thing he says to the ambulance man is that she is after stabbing herself and the seed is planted and that is the narrative when the paramedics arrive,” continued the barrister.

Counsel said the stall had been set that Ms McDermott was depressed and the accused had planted that seed and encouraged it to grow by the time he spoke to gardaí and embellished, what the prosecution submitted was “absolutely a lie”.

‘Consistent with his innocence’

Mr Munro said Mr Hayes went to both the gardaí and to the hospital on the night of Ms McDermott’s death, which was “consistent with his innocence”.

Counsel said the reason for Mr Hayes taking the stand was to tell the jury, “to your faces, that he did not do it”.

Mr Munro said that there was “grief and emotion in the room” for the “much-loved” Ms McDermott but he urged the jury to only pay attention to the evidence heard in the case.

Counsel said that an autopsy carried out by former State pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy found the single stab wound to Ms McDermott’s abdomen could be “consistent with self-harm”, as is contended by the defence.

Mr Munro said that no DNA from Mr Hayes had been found on the knife suspected of inflicting the fatal wound and that toxicology reports tallied with Mr Hayes’ account of both he and Ms McDermott taking cocaine and drinking vodka on the night.

”We know he [Mr Hayes] has a history of violence, can be callous and uncaring but he goes to the guards and that is consistent with innocence. She [Ms McDermott] seems to have been suffering with depression. Maybe if you are going out with Martin Hayes anyone could feel like that and then you add drink and drugs into that volatile relationship,” said counsel.

”He’s been distasteful but unguarded. Certainly he is in an unflattering light but a true one. He could do no more than he has done and given as much information as he could, including his previous convictions. And we commend his fate to you [the jury]. We say, in accordance with the evidence, that there cannot be a guilty verdict,” said Mr Munro.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott will begin charging the jury of eight men and four women on Monday before they commence their deliberations.

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