‘Abusive’ murder accused told new girlfriend he had ‘helped’ ex put knife through her stomach, witness tells trial

A man on trial for the murder of his partner said that he had “helped” her put a knife she was holding through her stomach by putting “his hands on her hands to help ram it through”, a subsequent girlfriend of the accused has told a Central Criminal jury today.

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

The jury has already heard evidence from Garda Jason Flynn, who said the accused told him that he and Ms McDermott had argued after drinking vodka and taking cocaine. The accused told the witness that Ms McDermott came into a bedroom with a knife and said she was going to kill herself. Mr Hayes further told the garda that a few minutes later, he heard a rumbling sound and went to the living area where he found his girlfriend with a puncture wound to the abdomen.

Mr Hayes’s former partner, Niamh Higgins, told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, that she began going out with the accused around September 2018. She said they had been out together on Christmas Eve 2018 when Mr Hayes consumed cocaine and alcohol.

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Ms Higgins said the accused was agitated when she was wrapping her daughter’s Christmas presents in her house that night. She said Mr Hayes asked her if she knew what had happened on the night that his previous partner Amadea had died. “I said ‘no I don’t, tell me everything’,” she said.

The witness said the accused told her that he went through a phone belonging to Amadea’s daughter when the child was in school and had found messages between the mother of two and another man. She said the accused was “pretty sure something was going on”.

Ms Higgins said the accused told her that he had confronted Amadea on the night she died in July 2017 and that the deceased had got a knife “to defend or protect herself because she obviously knew the extremes of Martin’s behaviour”.

The witness said the accused told her that there was a “big argument” between him and Amadea that night and that Mr Hayes had chased her around the kitchen to get her phone from her.

“He said she had a knife in her hand and he put his arms around her ......and held the knife in her hands and put the knife in her stomach,” she said.

The witness said she rang the accused’s father that night to get him removed from her house but that he eventually left. She said their relationship ended that night.

Under cross-examination, Ms Higgins agreed with Ronan Munro SC, defending, that she made two statements to gardaí – one in November 2020 and a more recent one in May 2023.

Mr Munro said the statement from 2020 did not contain “the confession to murder” and that the witness had withheld that from gardaí. Ms Higgins said “the ending of how the knife went into her [Amadea] was the only thing” and that she had withheld it out of fear.

Mr Munro put it to the witness that she had again told gardaí “about Christmas Eve” in 2023 but this time “sprinkled in the confession”. Ms Higgins said she was “in genuine fear, I was afraid”.

The barrister said his client “absolutely did not accept” that he had made such a confession.

Mr Munro suggested to the witness that she was trying to construct a narrative that did not happen. Ms Higgins denied this.

Ms Higgins said that the conversation on Christmas Eve 2018 was when Mr Hayes admitted to her about him having “held the knife”.

She said the accused had become emotional that night as he couldn’t wrap presents for his own children and she had consoled him. “He wasn’t upset for that long as he was very abusive that night,” she added.

Ms Higgins repeated to the jury that the accused told her that he had found Amadea’s daughter’s phone a couple of times with “flirty messages” on it between the deceased and another man. The witness said the accused said he had confronted Amadea about the messages and chased her around the kitchen that night to get the phone off her. The witness said the accused had “helped her put the knife through her stomach, he put his hands on her hands to help ram it through her stomach,” she said.

Mr Munro told the witness that “help” was a strange word to use. Ms Higgins said Amadea had the knife to protect herself and it was “with the help of his hands”. “He said he stood behind her and put his hands on her hands and the knife went into her stomach,” she explained.

Asked by counsel if she wanted to “take back” the word “help”, Ms Higgins replied “but she had a knife”. Counsel told the witness that she was making it up as she went along. “I’m here as a witness and a victim of this man. I’m here to tell my story of what I was told,” she continued.

The witness agreed that when she heard about Mr Hayes possibly getting bail on May 18th this year she had made another statement to gardaí. Mr Munro suggested to the witness that this might have had the effect of “possibly blocking his bail” by her making a statement to say he had confessed to murder. “I’ve held this in for a long time,” replied the witness.

In re-examination, the witness agreed with Mr Gillane that gardaí had come to take a statement from her in November 2020 and had asked her about the details of her relationship with Mr Hayes.

The court has heard that Mr Hayes was working as a grave digger in Mount Jerome cemetery in Harold’s Cross at the time of Ms McDermott’s death.

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