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.