Accused gives evidence in Cork murder trial

A 47-year-old man accused of the murder of a Cork woman in her home on Easter Sunday last year told a jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today that the person who carried out the murder as a “ complete psychopath”.

The body of separated mother of three Catherine Smart, (aged 57) was found on the floor of her home in Ballick Court, Midleton, Co Cork on the morning April 4, 2010, having sustained serious head injuries.

Derrick Daly, originally from Enfield in Co Meath but with an address at St Vincent’s Hostel in Cork city, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Smart on April 4, 2010.

Daly denied in evidence today that he was wearing a pair of jeans that were found to be stained with blood from the victim on the morning of her murder.

Four witnesses including two gardaí have testified that they saw Daly wearing the same jeans before and after he claimed to have found the body of Ms Smart.

Questioned by defence counsel Mr Blaise O’Carroll SC how Ms Smart’s blood came to be on the jeans, Daly said Ms Smart had used the jeans to stem a nosebleed in the days before her murder.

When asked by Mr O’Carroll if Catherine Smart had any enemies, Daly said in the months before her death she had received a number of threats including one from a person unknown who threatened to burn down her house.

He said: “She didn’t want to do anything about it but I persuaded her to go the gardaí”.

Under cross-examination by prosecution counsel Mr Michael Durack SC, Daly said that on the morning of Miss Smart’s murder he unable to get through the door of the living/sitting room area as the victim's body was jammed up against it.

When asked by Mr Durack how his left thumb print was found on a blood mark on the rear of the fridge at a distance of 51 inches.

Mr Daly said: “ I must have put my hand around. I am not sure”.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and a jury of seven women and five men.

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