A man accused of the murder of his 47-year-old partner told emergency services the couple had been drinking the night before and she had fallen several times before falling down the stairs, where he found her the following morning, a jury has heard.
Marcus O’Neill (35) of O’Brien Street in Waterford city denied the murder of Tramore woman Gillian Curran at his home at O’Brien Street on January 25th, 2025 when he was arraigned before the jury panel at the Central Criminal Court in Waterford.
On Thursday, the jury was played a recording of a 999 call that O’Neill made on January 25th, 2025 at 9.56am, in which he explained what had happened.
He told a paramedic that Curran had fallen a few times and hit her head and her chin.
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“I can hear her heart pulse, her heartbeat but she’s not breathing, her breathing is very low,” he said on the call. “She is not awake, she doesn’t seem to be conscious, but she has a heart rate . . . her breathing is very low and her temperature is quite high. Her breathing is not normal.”
The paramedic can be heard guiding O’Neill through performing CPR. O’Neill told him she was now a bluish-yellow colour and was not responding even after he touched her abdomen.
O’Neill remained on the call after NAS paramedics arrived at the house and his explanation was recorded. “We were drinking last night and she fell a few times and hit her head and she fell downstairs,” he said.
Opening the case, prosecution counsel Conor O’Doherty gave the jury an outline of the evidence they were likely to hear over the course of the trial, which is expected to run for two to three weeks.
He said the issue for the jury to decide would be whether the injuries sustained by Curran occurred by accident, as outlined by O’Neill to gardaí, or whether they were the result of a violent assault, as the State contended.
He said O’Neill was in a relationship with Curran, who had struggled throughout her life with alcohol addiction. While she was not living with O’Neill at his home on O’Brien Street, she stayed there occasionally, as was the case on the night of January 24th, 2025.
He said the jury would hear O’Neill had told gardaí that while Curran fell several times on the ground floor and upstairs, he came downstairs on the morning of January 25th to find she had fallen down the stairs.
He said O’Neill had found her naked and put on her clothes before placing her on a sofa. He continued, saying O’Neill had tried to wipe away blood from her face and head as well as from the scene before he made the 999 emergency call.
He said emergency services were unable to resuscitate Curran, who was pronounced dead at the scene at 10.23am by Dr Paul Campbell. Her body was then removed to University Hospital Waterford for a postmortem examination.
The jury would hear that O’Neill presented at Waterford Garda station voluntarily that morning for interview, but was formally arrested for questioning at 12.17pm by Det Sgt Brian O’Callaghan.
He was later taken to hospital for treatment for a number of injuries. These included a swollen right fist which he later said he sustained from punching a wall on January 23rd. He denied assaulting Curran or that they had any major arguments, though he admitted they had a minor disagreement over attending a local credit union.
O’Doherty said the jury would hear from State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers that Curran died from multiple blunt-force traumatic injuries to the head and abdomen. The case continues before a jury of five men and seven women and Judge Caroline Biggs.
