Widow abducted, beaten and robbed, trial hears

A MURDER trial has heard that West Cork widow Anne Corcoran was abducted, beaten and robbed before her body was set on fire and later buried in a wood near Ballinspittle, Co Cork, last year.

It was also claimed Oliver Hayes, a part-time painter and decorator from Bandon, Co Cork, used Ms Corcoran’s bank cards to take €3,000 from ATMs and used the money to pay bills and go on a skiing holiday to Austria within days of killing his victim.

Hayes, aged 50, from Clancool Terrace, Bandon, Co Cork, has denied the murder of Ms Corcoran on a date between January 19 and January 21, 2009. His offer of a guilty plea to his victim’s manslaughter was not accepted by the DPP.