A woman who denies murdering her former lover by stabbing him 18 times with a kitchen knife had received 37 phone calls from him in the hours preceding his death.
Maura Thornton (31), a native of Inverin, Connemara, denies the murder of US national Kevin Joyce (59) at a rented apartment at 183, Upper Salthill, Galway, on July 31st, 2011.
In evidence yesterday, the fourth day of the trial at the Central Criminal Court in Galway, Det Peter Conlon said Ms Thornton had answered six of the calls and the remainder had gone to voicemail.
Det Conlon said the accused had received 120 calls in the 24-hour period from midnight on the Saturday night to midnight on the Sunday night and she had made 55 calls on her phone in the same period.
Mr Joyce, he said, had also phoned Ms Thornton’s mother’s phone nine times that Sunday. The last call was recorded at 8.40pm, an hour and a half before he died.
Mr Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, said a blood sample taken from Ms Thornton shortly after her arrest showed 357mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
The trial is expected to conclude by this evening.