Nicola Collins murder accused tells court gardai not interested in hearing the truth

Gardaí were not interested in the truth, a murder accused complained today as he said they kept changing the subject when he tried to explain that the deceased suffered her fatal head injury by falling in the bath.

Prosecution senior counsel, Tom Creed, put it to the accused man, Cathal O’Sullivan, that his evidence in court was that the deceased was knocked unconscious by a fall but that there was no mention by the accused of her being unconscious after the alleged bath fall in any of the three memos of interviews with gardaí.

O’Sullivan replied: “The most serious incident that probably caused her death, I was diverted away from that. They (gardaí) did not want to know the truth no matter how much I tried to explain. I was directed away from that. The next question diverted away from that point, the most important point that I was trying to explain.”

Mr Creed SC said: “You were given plenty of opportunity to describe.”

The accused replied: “I do not agree with that. That is a false assumption on your part.”

Cathal O'Sullivan, 45, who is originally from Charleville, County Cork, is on trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork and denies murdering Nicola Collins on March 27, 2017 at a flat at 6A Popham's Road, Farranree, Cork, over the Gala store.

O’Sullivan challenged the conclusions of pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, in the case and he described it as a cardinal sin to assume Ms Collins died from assault and he said it was not scientific to start with an assumption and then to work towards that.

When the accused made other comments about Dr Bolster’s report when re-examined by Colman Cody defence SC, Mr Creed for the prosecution stood to object and said of the accused: “This man is not a pathologist, he is not an expert, he has absolutely no expertise.”

Mr Creed said that the accused man inflicted all the injuries on the deceased young woman and in effect murdered her.

Cathal O’Sullivan said that on Sunday night when Nicola Collins was in bed (she died in the early hours of Monday).

Accused Cathal O'Sullivan

“I said to her, ‘Are we OK?’ And she looked at me like it was a stupid question and said, ‘Yeah, of course’. And she was comfortable.”

Mr Creed responded: “With 130 injuries she is comfortable. That she died shortly after and she was comfortable.”

O’Sullivan said: “She was happy. We were happy with the things we had. We had a plan and we were going towards it.”

Mr Creed summarised the defendant’s evidence: “The injuries were either caused accidentally as a result of falls or else post mortem.”

O’Sullivan replied: “The injury that caused her death was the fall in the bath which caused subdural haemorrhage.”

Mr Creed asked: “What about the other 124 injuries – either post mortem or else as a result of injuries?”

He replied: “The majority of injuries were caused post mortem. A number were accidental or as a result of incidents between myself and Nicola. They were not deliberate contact. There is no injury deliberately caused by me on Nicola.”

Mr Creed asked: “Did you strike her at all, apart from the accidental marks?”

“That depends on what you mean. Did I contact her? Yes. Did I do it on purpose? No. Did I cause it? I don’t know, that is English, that is where I get poor with my description.”

Later he said: “I am not blaming Nicola at any stage. None of us were at fault. Nicola did not cause anything. I did not cause anything. These were outbursts, we cannot control her outbursts.”

Closing speeches from the prosecution and defence and the address from Ms Justice Eileen Creedon to put the jury of nine men and three women formally in charge of the case will proceed at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork today.