A 61-year-old suffered 30 stab and slash wounds to the head and body and died from bleeding and shock as a result, a jury has heard in the trial of a man and woman accused of the man’s murder.
Father-of-four Michael Foley was found dead at his rented chalet at Annville, Barrett’s Place, Macroom, Co Cork.
Daniel Hourigan (32) and Linda O’Flynn (32) both deny the murder of Foley at that address between January 31st and February 1st 2024.
At the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday, Dr Margot Bolster gave evidence of the various wounds and injuries that she found on Foley’s body when she conducted a postmortem on his remains at Cork University Hospital after he was found dead in the chalet on February 6th, 2024.
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Dr Bolster listed out the catalogue of wounds that she found on Mr Foley including 11 stab wounds mainly to the body and 19 slash or incision wounds mainly to the head area.
One of the stab wounds pierced Mr Foley’s right lung, leading to its collapse and one of the slash wounds penetrated his skull.
Dr Bolster said many of the slash and stab wounds to Mr Foley’s hands and arms were of a defensive nature while she also found evidence of approximately 30 bruises and lacerations all over his body including several to his legs, but she found no evidence of any bones being broken.
“The slash wounds to the head would cause major bleeding and a slash wound to the head can alone cause death but there is no evidence that a slash wound alone caused death in this case, and it was a combination of all the stab and slash injuries that led to death,” she said.
Dr Bolster was shown a knife with a 21cm blade which gardaí seized as part of their investigation into the murder and she confirmed that the wounds suffered by Foley were caused by that knife or a similar type knife with a similarly long blade.
Dr Bolster also told she took blood samples from Foley’s body at postmortem and toxicology tests revealed that he had a blood alcohol concentration of 227mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood which was over four times the legal driving limit.
Cross-examined by defence counsel for Mr Hourigan, Ray Boland SC, Dr Bolster agreed that an alcohol concentration level of 227mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood would impact on a person’s ability to defend themselves impairing both their judgment and their co-ordination.
The trial before a jury of nine men and three women also heard evidence from fingerprint expert Dr Craig Mullen of Forensic Science Ireland who confirmed that a palm print found on a doorframe at Foley’s flat matched Mr Hourigan’s left palm print.
He also confirmed a fingerprint found on a mug found at Foley’s flat matched a print from Ms O’Flynn’s right ring finger. He confirmed to Ms O’Flynn’s counsel, Donal O’Sullivan SC, that he did not find her prints or any identifiable prints on a roll of black plastic bags.
The trial had previously heard evidence from community care nurse, Ciara Harmon that she had found Foley lying in a pool of blood in his kitchen when she called to check just before lunch hour on February 6th after he failed to keep an appointment.
One of the first gardaí to arrive at the scene, Det Garda Fintan Coffey of Macroom Garda station, told the court when he arrived at the chalet, he saw that “there was a substantial amount of blood on the floor and there appeared to be footmarks in it.”
Det Garda Coffey said the deceased had a jacket draped across the bottom half of his torso and what he described as “a very nasty injury to his left ear” while there was also a large blood splatter on the wall.
The case continues before the jury and Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford.
