Hayes went to camera club as victim lay dead, court hears

Oliver Hayes attended his camera club and drinks afterwards while Anne Corcoran lay dead in his house, his murder trial heard.

Oliver Hayes (aged 49) of Clancool Terrace, Bandon told gardaí he beat the widow unconscious on Monday January 19 last year, after abducting her from her home at Maulnaskimlehane, Kilbrittain.

He discovered she was dead the following morning but continued with his normal routine.

The painter has pleaded guilty to the 60-year-old’s manslaughter but not guilty to murdering her between January 19 and 21, 2009. He admits falsely imprisoning her and stealing €3,000 from her bank account.

The Central Criminal Court jury spent today watching his garda interview from last February. He had already confessed to her killing but was giving a more detailed account.

Hayes, who walked marathons, walked several kilometres to her house.

“I had an idea she would have (money) because she had a farm,” he said.

He drove Mrs Corcoran back to Bandon in the boot of her car, her hands tied.

He stopped on a dirt track and asked for her bank card.

“At that stage I was getting fed up myself,” he said.

She had got into the back seat so he tied her legs with her dog lead and stayed there for 20 minutes.

“I said I wasn’t in any rush and would wait all night,” he continued. “She asked me did someone pay you to do this. She was convinced somebody sent me.”

He took her to his house and sat her on the floor upstairs.

“I wanted to bring her to my house to get her to talk,” he said.

She asked him where she was but he didn’t tell her the address.

“I tied her up better. There was old electrical cable that I was able to wrap right around her hands,” he said. “I then gagged her with an old piece of a shirt.”

After 10 minutes she told him her pin and where her bank card was in her house.

“I was afraid she’d escape while I was gone,” he said. “I thought I’d knock her out.”

He did so with a kitchen worktop after failing with a piece of timber.

He found the card and drove home. His victim was still unconscious and he went to bed. However she wasn’t breathing the following morning.

“I didn’t know what to do next,” he said. “I went to take my girlfriend up to do home help for her brother. I had to take her up anyway. She’d be wondering.”

He returned about 5pm.

“It was the same. There was a lot of blood around the place,” he said, confirming that she was cold. He covered her with a cardboard box so he wouldn’t have to see her and stayed in another room for the evening, leaving to move her car and withdraw her cash.

“I did the same thing Wednesday. There was nothing different,” he said.

“I went to Clonakilty that night,” he said, referring to his camera club. “Some of us went for a drink. I had the usual, Heineken Shandy,” he said.

“Were you at a party that week, Oliver?” asked a detective.

“I was, yes,” he replied.

“You didn’t mention it before,” said the detective.

“I didn’t think of it,” replied Hayes.

He said he had Mrs Corcoran’s heavy and stiff body “covered very well with coal bags” as he removed it from his house on the Thursday night.

“I had to stop a good few times,” he said of carrying her from his van to a stone pit in a forest. There was a smell as he burned the body before covering it with earth and stones.

Hayes burst into tears as he recalled returning to her house afterwards to feed her dogs.

“I didn’t want them to suffer,” he cried.

Earlier he’d attempted to chat with one of the detectives.

“Where are you from yourself?” he asked. The garda could not tell him and suggested he say a prayer.

“Say a Hail Mary,” he proposed, and Hayes recited the prayer aloud.

The trial continues.