Killer ‘identified more’ with animals than humans

A TOP criminal profiler has told how the painter who kidnapped and murdered widow Ann Corcoran returned to her West Cork home twice to feed her dogs because he identified more with animals than humans.

The 60-year-old was abducted, beaten and left to die in the rubbish-strewn home of her killer Oliver Hayes in January 2009 so he could rifle €3,000 from her bank accounts to go on an Austrian holiday.

The TV3 documentary, 24 Hours to Kill, reveals how Hayes showed little remorse about torturing and killing the Kilbrittain widow but burst into tears when questioned about her dogs by police.

It also tells how the killer, 49, from Bandon, Co Cork, was given by his mother to a neighbour to go on a trip to Knock when he was nine months old but was placed in foster care when she never returned to collect him.

The day after he abducted Ms Corcoran he returned to her home to rob her bank cards and feed the dogs while she lay dying in his home, 15 kilometres away. A few days later, he went back a second time to feed the dogs the night before he flew out to Austria.

Criminal profiler Dr David Wilson, told the documentary that Hayes’ feelings for the dogs, while calculatingly killing their owner, fitted the profile of a loner with poor social skills.

He said: “He was not somebody who could easily start up conversation and maintain a conversation and socialise. He was a loner with very poor social skills.

“When individuals are like that psychologically, inevitably they form very close bonds to people like children. You would see a lot of this behaviour in paedophiles.”

The documentary describes how the victim bravely fought Hayes off before being overcome by him and was bundled into the boot of her own car with him at the wheel.

At one point she managed to free her ties and try to climb into the back of the car but he stopped and tied her up more securely.

The widow was dragged into his home and attacked before she gave told him the location for her bank cards and their PIN numbers. He hit her over the head with a stick and a kitchen counter-top knocking her unconscious.

But former Northern Ireland State pathologist, Dr Derek Carson believes the gag placed over her mouth before she was dragged into Hayes’s house could have been what finally killed the widow.

“With time the gag may permit air to enter initially but when it’s wet with saliva and perhaps blood and other secretions it becomes less pervious to air.

“The person may well die from an element of asphyxiate suffocation.”

The documentary also revealed how he had attempted to rob a number of elderly women on their own on previous occasions but had been interrupted before he could carry out an attack.

Hayes was sentenced to life imprisonment for Ann Corcoran’s murder in March and was also given a 10-year sentence to run concurrently for robbing €3,000 from the widow’s bank account.

* 24 Hours to Kill will be shown on TV3 tonight at 9pm.