Accused: Woman ‘stole a vial of my blood’

A man told his cousin he stabbed a Kilkenny woman to death because she had stolen a “vial of his blood”, “installed hidden cameras”, and put “black widow spiders” in his house, a jury has heard.

Shane Smyth, aged 29, of McGuinness House, Evans Lane, Kilkenny, has pleaded not guilty, by reason of insanity, to murdering Mairead Moran, aged 26, on May 8, 2014, at the Market Cross Shopping Centre in Kilkenny City.

A jury at the Central Criminal Court