A MAN accused of the murder of a Cork woman in her home on Easter Sunday last year told a jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday the person who carried out the murder was a “complete psychopath”.
The body of separated mother of three Catherine Smart (57) was found on the floor of her home in Ballick Court, Midleton, Co Cork, on April 4th, 2010, having sustained serious head injuries.
Derrick Daly (47), originally from Enfield, Co Meath, but with an address at St Vincent’s Hostel in Cork city, has pleaded not guilty to her murder. Mr Daly denied in evidence yesterday that he was wearing a pair of jeans found to be stained with the victim’s blood on the morning of her murder.
Four witnesses, including two gardaí, have testified they saw Mr Daly wearing the same jeans before and after he claimed to have found the body of Ms Smart.
Asked by Blaise O’Carroll SC, defending, how Ms Smart’s blood came to be on the jeans, Mr Daly said Ms Smart had used the jeans to stem a nosebleed in the days before her murder.
When asked by Mr O’Carroll whether Ms Smart had any enemies, Mr Daly said in the months before her death she had received a number of threats, including one to burn her house.
Michael Durack SC, prosecuting, asked how his left thumb print was found in a blood mark on the rear of the fridge and Mr Daly said: “I must have put my hand around. I am not sure.”
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and a jury of seven women and five men.