Murdered woman had a ‘past life’, says accused

A MAN has told gardaí that the Cork woman he is charged with murdering at her home on Easter Sunday last year had a “past life” and that people regularly called to her home in the months before her death.

The body of mother-of-three Catherine Smart, aged 57, was discovered on the floor of her house in Midleton, on the morning of April 4, 2010. She had been subjected to a violent assault and died from multiple blunt force injuries to the head.

Derrick Daly, aged 47, originally from Enfield in Co Meath but with an address at St Vincent’s Hostel in Cork city, has pleaded not guilty to her murder.

In the second of seven interviews conducted at Midleton Garda Station, Daly told detectives that, in the months prior to her death, people had begun regularly calling to Ms Smart’s home.

Daly said that, on one occasion a “small, dirty, old fella” knocked on the door and that he had, on occasions, answered the door and told the callers “where to go”.

“She had a past life, I’ll just put it that way,” Daly told gardaí.

Today’s proceedings were taken up with watching videotape evidence of Daly’s interrogation by gardaí. It is anticipated that the jury will view more than 10 hours of video footage recorded by gardaí over the course of seven interviews with the accused.

The jury heard that Daly, a former construction worker, had been living with Catherine Smart for a year-and-a-half prior to her death. They did not have a sexual relationship.

On the night before she died, Catherine Smart had been socialising in a number of pubs in Midleton. She was walked to her door by a friend, who told the court he found Daly drunk in the house.

Gardaí also told court of encountering Daly drunk in the early hours of the Sunday morning in question, having called to Ms Smart’s home in answer to a complaint from her that she was locked out of her home.

Daly told gardaí that he left the house early on the Sunday morning, returning around 25 minutes later to find Ms Smart dead, at which point he phoned gardaí. He denied any altercation or argument had occurred.

The trial continues in front of Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan.