A 50-YEAR-OLD painter who beat an elderly widow to death after abducting her from her isolated rural home has failed in his appeal against his murder conviction.
Oliver Hayes was sentenced to life by Mr Justice Paul Carney in March last year for the murder of Anne Corcoran (60) from Cork by a majority verdict following an 11-day trial. Hayes, of Clancool Terrace, Bandon, Co Cork, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but had denied murdering Mrs Corcoran in January 2009.
The judge also imposed a concurrent 10-year sentence on Hayes after he pleaded guilty to charges relating to false imprisonment and stealing €3,000 from Mrs Corcoran’s account after her death.
The Court of Criminal Appeal found that were was “absolutely no substance” in the grounds for appeal submitted by Hayes’s defence team.
Counsel for the applicant, Blaise O’Carroll SC, said the only issue for the jury to determine was whether the case was one of murder or manslaughter and that Hayes’s appeal was a net point on the definition of murder and whether he intended to kill his victim.
Presiding judge Mr Justice Liam McKechnie, sitting with Mr Justice Michael Hanna and Mr Justice Daniel O’Keefe, said the court found that Mr Justice Carney’s handling of the subjective element involved in establishing the necessary intent was “perfectly precise and adequate”.