Woman accused of drowning colleague had to ‘fight for her life’ under water

A woman charged with murdering her colleague by driving him into a harbour, where he drowned told gardaí that she had to “fight for my life” under the water.

Portions of her Garda interviews were played to the Central Criminal Court yesterday.

Marta Herda, aged 29, of Pairc Na Saile, Emoclew Rd, Arklow, Co Wicklow, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 31-year-old Csaba Orsos on March 26, 2013 at South Quay, Arklow.

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

The prosecution played excerpts from her Garda interviews yesterday, following the cross-examination of her interviewer, Detective Sergeant Fergus O’Brien.

She had told gardaí they had been fighting in the car as they approached the harbour in her car. “He was screaming. I want him to stop,” she said on the video.

“We hit the barrier. Then I get the shock and look at him. I said a word. He said some word as well and water was already…” She said it was dark. “Since that, I don’t remember nothing. I’m feeling that I’m not in the car. I’m in the water,” she said.

“I was trying to, like this, all the time to get out of the water and I couldn’t,” she said, gesturing. “I tried harder and harder. Then I feel something on my feet.” She said she lost her shoes and sweater.

“I was screaming his name, but I knew there was no air,” she said.

“The waves were taking me down and up, down and up. I had to fight for my life.”

Det Sgt O’Brien had been asked by the defence what he thought Ms Herda meant when she said in her initial statement: “When I drove into the water, I wanted this all to stop.”

“She wanted it to stop, all the phone calls and text messages she was getting,” testified Det Sgt O’Brien.

Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, defending, suggested she was describing what was happening in the car when she said she wanted it to stop. “I suppose, yes, it’s one interpretation,” said the witness.

Mr O Lideadha suggested she wasn’t saying she “did this” to stop the texts over the two years. “But you think it’s open to that interpretation,” he said.

“Yes,”

said the detective.

The trial continues.