Murder accused hoped to save man from water

A woman accused of murdering her colleague by driving him into a harbour, where he drowned, told gardaí she was hoping to save him if she had seen him in the water.

A video of her garda interviews were played to the Central Criminal Court yesterday on the ninth day of her trial.

Marta Herda, aged 29, of Pairc Na Saile, Emoclew Road, Arklow, Co Wicklow, is charged with the murder of 31-year-old Csaba Orsos on March 26, 2013.

The Polish woman has pleaded not guilty to murdering the Hungarian at South Quay, Arklow.

They both worked at Brook Lodge Hotel in Aughrim and the trial heard that he was in love with her, but she did not feel the same.

Both had been in Ms Herda’s car when it went into the water that morning. Ms Herda escaped but Mr Orsos’ body was found on a nearby beach later that day.

Detective Sgt Fergus O’Brien was being cross-examined by the defence yesterday about the interviews that he had conducted with Ms Herda following her arrest in August 2013.

He agreed that not all of what she had said, which could be seen on the videos, had made it into the gardaí’s handwritten memos. Segments of the videos were then played at the request of the defence.

“If I would see him in the water, I was hoping I would try to save him,” she said.

“But my friend said: ‘Don’t even think of this. It is good that it didn’t happen because then you would die to-gether’.”

She explained that her friend thought that he would have pulled her down.

She said that she was constantly thinking of what she should have done.

“If I had driven a different way,” she suggested.

She was asked what sort of person the deceased was.

“I don’t know if he was a good person or a bad person,” she replied. “For me, he was like a good-hearted person.” However, she said she was afraid of him too.

“He had a few personalities,” she said.

She was asked if he was a nuisance. “Yes,” she replied.

She was asked if he was a pest.

“Yes,” she replied. “He said he will prove to the whole world how much he loves me.” She said she had never had a sexual relationship with him.

“I said: ‘I could never be with someone like you because you would lock me somewhere’,” she said.

The trial continues.