Life should mean life, says family of murdered Olivia

For Ann Dunlea, the night times are the hardest — replaying over and over the nightmare of what happened to her daughter, Olivia, at the hands of murderer Darren Murphy.

Ann admits it is especially painful in the still and quietness of the early hours when she doesn’t have the distraction of her grandchildren filling the house up with warmth and love.

In February 2013, Olivia, aged 36, who lived in Passage West, Co Cork, was stabbed in the neck in her home by Darren Murphy, 41, after he first tried to smother her with a pillow. As she lay dying in her bed he set fire to her quilt before going downstairs and lighting a fire in the middle of the table.