A 61-year-old father of four died from multiple stab and slash wounds, a jury will hear at the trial of a man and woman accused of his murder at a sheltered housing project where he lived in Co Cork.
Michael Foley was found dead at his rented chalet at Annville, Barrett’s Place, Macroom. Co-accused Daniel Hourigan (32) and Linda O’Flynn (32) both deny the murder of Mr Foley at that address between January 31st and February 1st, 2023.
Both Mr Hourigan and Ms O’Flynn pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Foley but guilty to impeding the apprehension or prosecution of another person for an arrestable offence when they were arraigned on the murder charge at the Central Criminal Court in Cork.
Opening the case on Friday, prosecution counsel Jane Hyland SC told the jury of seven men and five women that what she would tell them was not evidence, but a framework of facts that would assist them when it came to fitting the evidence they would hear into a narrative.
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She said they would hear that Mr Foley, who had a number of addiction issues earlier in his life, was living at Annville, through a tenancy with Cork County Council through the Housing First scheme. A nurse used to check on him and other tenants on a regular basis.
Nurse Ciara Harmon called to carry out a welfare check on Mr Foley at around 12.50pm on February 6th as he had missed a number of appointments and not answered her calls. When she entered the property, she found Mr Foley dead on the kitchen floor.
Ms Hyland said the jury would hear evidence Mr Foley showed signs of being severely beaten and he had a cut to his left ear as well as a number of gash type injuries to his skull. Ms Harmon immediately alerted emergency services, including gardaí.
They would hear from Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster that Mr Foley had suffered bruising to the cheeks and eyes consistent with multiple blows, and 11 slash- and stab-type injuries. Those latter wounds led to shock and haemorrhage, and to his death.
Ms Hyland said gardaí garnered a huge amount of CCTV footage as part of their investigation, including footage around Macroom on January 31st as well as the final sighting of him alive on CCTV near his house at 8.15pm on that evening.
Gardaí also obtained CCTV footage of the accused, Mr Hourigan, originally from Farranree in Cork, and Ms O’Flynn, from Hollyhill in Cork, boarding a bus in Cork city at 5.32pm on January 31st, and footage from Macroom of them heading towards Mr Foley’s house at 8.19pm on the same day.
They also obtained footage of them from the same camera in Macroom at 11.08am on February 1st laden with bags, heading back towards to the bus station. They put a black bag in the hold of a bus before returning to Cork city where they disembarked on Western Road.
Ms Hyland said the jury would hear evidence from the bus driver that the pair left the black bag in the hold of the bus. When he opened it, he discovered it contained a knife, and it was later recovered and forensically examined and found to have Mr Foley’s blood on it.
She said when gardaí arrested and questioned both Mr Hourigan and Ms O’Flynn, who were in a relationship at the time, they each initially denied being in Macroom, but they then both blamed the other person for the injuries suffered by Mr Foley.
She said that the jury would also hear evidence gardaí found Mr Hourigan’s print in a bloodstain from Mr Foley’s blood on the architrave of the door of the deceased man’s bedroom, and Ms O’Flynn’s fingerprints in the kitchen of Mr Foley’s home.
She said it was the State’s case that both accused acted in joint enterprise in the murder of Mr Foley with the intent of killing him or causing him serious injury. The case continues, and is expected to hear from 94 witnesses and last up to three weeks.
