Woman who drove man off pier in car to appeal against murder conviction

A woman who drove a man who loved her into a deep harbour, where he drowned, will move to appeal against her murder conviction in July.

Marta Herda (29), of Pairc Na Saile, Emoclew Road, Arklow, Co Wicklow, knew her passenger could not swim when she drove her Volkswagen Passat through the crash barriers at South Quay, Arklow shortly before 6am on March 26th, 2013.

Herda pleaded not guilty to the murder of Csaba Orsos, a 31-year-old Hungarian, but a jury at the Central Criminal Court found her guilty and she was given the mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy on July 28th, 2016.

The Central Criminal Court was told that Herda, a Polish native, escaped through the driver’s window at the harbour but her colleague’s body was found on a nearby beach later that day.

Handbrake

A postmortem found that Mr Orsos died from drowning and not from injuries related to the crash. The trial heard that the handbrake had been applied before the car entered the water and that the only open window was the driver’s.

Herda has lodged an appeal against her conviction. She had sought bail pending her appeal and a date was fixed to hear the application in the Court of Appeal.

However, her lawyers told Mr Justice George Birmingham on Friday that her instructions were now to not proceed with a bail application but to seek a priority date for the appeal instead.

Counsel for Herda, Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, told Mr Justice Birmingham during case management procedures, that hearing the appeal would probably take two days. Submissions had been filed and there were a number of matters of substance, Mr Ó Lideadha said.

Mr Justice Birmingham listed the hearing for July 18th and 19th.