A grave digger who claimed that his partner deliberately stabbed herself to death has been found not guilty of her murder but guilty of manslaughter by the majority verdict of a Central Criminal Court jury.
Martin Hayes had admitted using violence against mother of two Amadea McDermott (27) in his own evidence to the trial, which also heard that he used a hidden app to access her phone.
In seeking an outright acquittal for their client, Ronan Munro SC with Marc Thompson Grolimund BL, defending, told the jury that no DNA from Hayes had been found on the knife suspected of inflicting the fatal wound and that toxicology reports tallied with Hayes’ account of both he and Amadea taking cocaine and drinking vodka on the night.
In his charge to the jury, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said if they accepted that Hayes inflicted the fatal wound without the requisite intent to kill or cause serious harm to Amadea then they should find him not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
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The jury had the option of returning three verdicts in relation to the murder charge against Hayes, namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty.
The 12 jurors took 13 hours and 22 minutes over four days to reject Martin Hayes’ defence that his account aligned with a postmortem examination that found the single stab wound to Amadea McDermott’s abdomen could be “consistent with self-harm”.
The prosecution had said Hayes’ account was “absolutely a lie” and that all the evidence led to the “irresistible conclusion” that the defendant had inflicted the fatal injury.
Sean Gillane SC with Michael D Hourigan BL, prosecuting, said in his closing speech that Hayes “had as much contempt” for Amadea in death as he had for her in life and the evidence in the case established that the defendant was guilty of the crime of murder.
The trial heard that Hayes told emergency services who arrived at Amadea’s home that the mother-of-two had self-harmed by stabbing herself.
“You heard his [Hayes] own words when he rings 112 at 00.40, the first thing he says to the ambulance man is that she is after stabbing herself and the seed is planted and that is the narrative when the paramedics arrive. He encouraged it [the seed] to grow by the time he spoke to gardai and embellished,” Mr Gillane argued in his closing address.
The barrister said the jury could see from Amadea’s text messages to Hayes in the week leading up to her death that she wanted him to stop being violent towards her and was scared he would kill her. Mr Gillane added: “It’s as if she had a crystal ball, she knew the storm was coming and that storm landed on this night, she wasn’t someone who wanted death, she feared death”.
Counsel also submitted in his closing speech that Hayes was becoming deranged about his partner having an incestuous relationship with a relative, an allegation that the barrister said was unconnected to reality. The defendant, he said, was “vibrating with menace” about this in the days leading up to the fatal assault.
The trial heard Hayes had alleged to a social worker that he found evidence on a phone that Amadea was having an incestuous relationship with the relative.
The jury also heard that in May of this year, six years after Amadea’s death, an ex-girlfriend of Hayes gave a revised statement to gardai, telling them that the defendant had confessed his involvement in the murder.
Niamh Higgins told the jury the defendant said that he had “helped” Amadea put a knife she was holding through her stomach by putting “his hands on her hands to help ram it through”.
The trial heard that Ms Higgins made two statements to gardai - one in November 2020 and a more recent one in May 2023. The statement from 2020 did not contain “the confession to murder”, which Ms Higgins said she had withheld out of fear.
Hayes took the stand at his own trial, denying that he had confessed to Ms Higgins that he had stabbed Amadea, telling the Central Criminal Court that the witness was lying and that she hated him.
Hayes also told the jury that while his and Amadea’s relationship was “toxic”, he did not stab her to death and had done “everything to save her”.
When questioned about a beauty therapist seeing extensive bruising on Amadea’s body prior to her death, Hayes told prosecution counsel that he “threw her” into a sofa after “she wouldn’t let” him go to work. “If someone is hitting me I’ll hit them back; I’ve every right to,” Hayes later said.
In his closing speech, Mr Munro had described his client as being “distasteful but unguarded”. He said Hayes had not tried to “pull the wool” over the eyes of either the jury or “experienced, expert gardaí” in his account of events on the night Ms McDermott died. Mr Munro said Hayes went to both the gardaí and to the hospital on the night of Ms McDermott’s death, which was “consistent with his innocence”.
A garda witness also told the jury that the deceased’s sister, Eucharia McDermott, alleged that Hayes had been physically abusive to Amadea in the past.
Hayes (34), with an address at Poddle Close, Crumlin, Dublin 12 had pleaded not guilty to murdering Amadea McDermott at her home in Rathvale Drive, Ayrfield, Coolock on or about July 20th, 2017.
The trial heard that the couple’s relationship was “difficult, volatile and abusive” and there was some degree of violence between the parties. The couple also abused alcohol and controlled drugs from time to time.
Following today’s majority verdict of 11-1, Mr Justice McDermott thanked the jury for the “great care” they had given the case and said he could only imagine that their role as jurors had been “very difficult, demanding and draining”.
The judge exempted the eight men and four women from jury service for the next ten years.
A sentence hearing for Hayes will take place on November 21 and the judge remanded the defendant in custody until that date.
On that date, the McDermott family will have an opportunity to make a statement to the court about the impact Amadea’s death has had on their lives.
Hayes showed little reaction following the verdict while members of the deceased’s family could be heard sobbing in the courtroom.