A 48-YEAR-OLD alcoholic who killed a mother of three in her Co Cork home on Easter Sunday last year has told his sentence hearing he found it impossible to believe he had any part to play in her death.
Derrick Daly, originally from Enfield, Co Meath, but with an address at St Vincent’s hospital in Cork city, was convicted by a majority verdict last month of the manslaughter of his friend, Catherine Smart (58), at Bailick Court, Midleton, on April 4th, 2010.
Daly, who had 20 previous convictions, had denied murder.
Giving evidence at the sentence hearing yesterday, Det Garda Danny Holland said gardaí had called to Ms Smart’s home at about 4.15am after she rang them saying she was locked out and Daly would not let her in.
Daly had met Ms Smart when he came to Midleton to drink in pubs there and had been living with her for a year and a half.
When gardaí eventually gained entry to the house, they found Daly in an intoxicated state after drinking a bottle of rum. He was very agitated and threatened one of the gardaí that he would “cut your f**king head off”.
Ms Smart said she felt she would be OK in the house, so they left. Later that morning, Daly rang gardaí to say he had gone to Lidl for alcohol, and when he returned he was locked out, but could see legs on the living-room floor.
When gardaí gained access, they found Ms Smart face down on the floor . She had suffered several blunt-force injuries to her head and was pronounced dead.
Gardaí found a bloodstained hurley broken in two pieces, which they believed was the weapon used.
A clump of Ms Smart’s hair was also found on the door of the microwave and the trial heard this could have been used to hit her over the head. The fridge was also overturned and covered in blood.
Taking the witness stand himself, Daly thanked Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan for a fair trial “given that I had very little recollection of the night and the subsequent death of my dear friend Catherine Smart”.
His defence barrister, Blaise O’Carroll SC, asked the judge to take into consideration that Daly came from a “tremendously dysfunctional” background.
Both of his parents were alcoholics, which prevented him from “developing into a stable human being”.
Mr Justice Sheehan adjourned sentencing until later in the month.