A 50-YEAR-OLD painter had shown no genuine remorse over the killing of a 60-year-old widow whom he bludgeoned to death, a judge said yesterday as he sentenced the man to life imprisonment for the woman’s murder.
Mr Justice Paul Carney said that he had observed Oliver Hayes closely both on videotape during his interviews with gardaí following his arrest for questioning about the murder of Anne Corcoran and later when he took the witness stand during his trial for her murder.
“Apart from the gratuitous violence involved, one of the most chilling features of this case was the accused’s total lack of any genuine remorse over anything other than the suffering he caused to Anne Corcoran’s dogs.
“As recently as last week when he gave evidence in court, he said in cross-examination that he was as much a victim as the unfortunate woman whom he bludgeoned to death,” said Mr Justice Carney as he imposed the mandatory life sentence on Hayes.
Mr Justice Carney said it would be a matter for the parole board at some stage “in the distant future” to determine when Hayes from Clancool Terrace, Bandon, Co Cork, would be released and they would base their decision on the transcript of the trial and the victim impact statement.
Mr Justice Carney also imposed two 10-year sentences to run concurrently with the life sentence after Hayes pleaded guilty to the false imprisonment of Ms Corcoran and five counts of theft and one of attempted theft of €3,000 from the widow on dates in January 2009.
Hayes, dressed in a dark grey suit and tie, showed little emotion during the 45-minute sentencing hearing at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.
Mrs Corcoran’s nephew Kevin Kelly had earlier outlined the impact that his aunt’s death had on her family including her grandnieces and grandnephews and spoke movingly of how they had been deprived of the opportunity to say a proper and final farewell to her by Hayes’s actions.
Mr Kelly said that descriptions of Ms Corcoran as “a 60-year-old widow” may have conjured up stereotypical images of an ageing woman but his aunt led a full and active life after the death of her husband Jerry in 2007.
“Ann’s passions in life were her dogs and her music, She liked nothing better than to listen to her Johnny Cash, Big Tom and Joe Dolan albums – she loved a social scene with music and she had a great sense of humour,” he said.
Describing her dogs, Roy, Trudy and Clive, as being like replacements for the children that she and her husband never had, Mr Kelly went on to say that his aunt “was robbed of that chance to live out her remaining years in the comfort of her friends and family”.
“Having to explain the word ‘murder’ to our children’ was a terrible task. Trying to protect them from this was next to impossible ... Ourselves and our children have, and are still, experiencing nightmares – there are times when the children don’t want to sleep on their own.
“We also feel we were deprived of the opportunity to say a face-to-face goodbye to Anne due to the manner of her murder and subsequent disposal of her body. A closed coffin is no way to say goodbye to our loved one,” he continued.
“Over the past year, from the massive search for our Aunt Ann to the funeral, right up to the trial, our family lives have been very difficult, our lives felt like they were on hold – it saddens us very deeply to know we will never get the opportunity to carry out any plans we made with her.”