Woman may have been bludgeoned with hurley, court hears

A MOTHER of three found dead in her Cork home on Easter Sunday last year may have been bludgeoned to death with a hurley, a Central Criminal Court jury has heard.

State pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy has given evidence in the trial of a Meath man charged with the murder of Catherine Smart, aged 57, at her home in Midleton, on April 4, 2010.

Derrick Daly, aged 47, originally from Meath but with an address at St Vincent’s Hostel in Cork, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Smart, with whom he had been living for a year-and-a-half prior to her death.