First murder trial to be held at new €34.8m Cork courthouse

A 41-year-old man is due to go on trial on Thursday charged with the murder of a mother-of-three in Co Cork five years ago in what will be the first jury trial to be held at the new €34.8 million courthouse on Anglesea Street in Cork.

Darren Murphy of Dan Desmond Villas in Passage West, Co Cork denies a charged that he murdered 36-year-old Olivia Dunlea at her home in Pembroke Crescent in Passage West on February 17th, 2013.

The body of Ms Dunlea, a native of Victoria Avenue in Ballinlough in Cork city, was found with a number of stab wounds in an upstairs bedroom of her family home in Passage West by firefighters after they extinguished a blaze at the semi-detached house.

Mr Murphy will go on trial this morning when a jury will be sworn in to try him in the first criminal trial to take place at the Cork Courthouse on Anglesea Street which was officially opened on Monday by Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan.

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The trial before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy is expected to last a number of weeks at the new courthouse which replaces the Washington Street Courthouse in Cork.