Courts

Woman punched murder accused for ‘smirking’ at her after sister died in hospital

Martin Hayes (34) told garda that he and Amadea McDermott drank vodka and took cocaine before her death

Martin Hayes (34) has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Amadea McDermott (27) in Coolock six years ago. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

Alison O'Riordan
Wed Oct 18 2023 - 18:28

A woman whose sister died from a stab wound has told a murder trial that she punched the accused after he smirked at her outside a hospital resuscitation room.

Martin Hayes (34), with an address at Poddle Close, Crumlin, Dublin 12, has pleaded not guilty to murdering mother-of-two Amadea McDermott (27) at her home in Rathvale Drive, Ayrfield, Coolock on or about July 20th, 2017.

Ms McDermott’s sister, Eucharia McDermott, told Seán Gillane SC, prosecuting, that Amadea was one of eight children and the family home was in Coolock. She said Amadea had two children who were then aged seven and four and her sister’s main focus.

Asked about the events of July 19th, 2020, the witness said she stopped texting Amadea at around 9.30pm before she went to bed. She received a call from Amadea’s phone later that night, but that when she went to answer it the call had ended.

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“As I was ringing her back, my [other] sister who was downstairs was shouting ‘quick, quick, it’s Amadea, she has gone into cardiac arrest’,” she said.

The witness, who was still in her pyjamas, put on her runners and ran up the road to Amadea’s apartment as she “needed to get to her as quickly as I could”.

She got into her other sister Euphrasia’s car along the way but jumped out of the moving vehicle when she arrived at the apartment.

Ms McDermott said Mr Hayes was sitting on a bed when she arrived and she was panicking and shouting “where is she, where is she”. The witness could see paramedics working on Amadea in a room but she was not allowed in.

Ms McDermott said she learned her sister had suffered a stab wound to the abdomen. She said she also informed Garda Jason Flynn about “the domestic abuse” in the relationship. She remarked to the jury that it was the “worst day of my life”.

When doctors at Beaumont Hospital later told Ms McDermott that Amadea had died, the witness said she felt as if she could not breathe and had to get out of the resuscitation room. She saw the accused at the door and said to him “you shouldn’t be here”.

“He was smirking at me, he said ‘shut up you thick’ and with that I punched him and he punched me directly back,” she said.

Asked by Mr Gillane about the state of the living room in the apartment, the witness said it was a mess and there was glass and clothes on the floor. She took three phones from her sister’s apartment on the day after the incident and gave them to gardaí when they called to her home in November 2019.

Under cross-examination, Ms McDermott told Ronan Munro SC, defending, that when alcohol was involved there used to be “screaming matches” between the accused and her late sister.

The witness agreed that her objective when she made a statement to gardaí was to let them know that her sister’s relationship was “full of conflict”.

Euphrasia McDermott told the jury that Amadea was her best friend and they did everything together.

Asked if Amadea had seemed depressed to her a week before her death, she said her sister was planning for the future so there was “no sign of anything like that”.

Garda Flynn told Mr Gillane that he and his colleague responded to a call about Rathvale Drive at around 1.10am on July 20th. He was told by medical personnel that Amadea McDermott had a puncture wound to the stomach and the prognosis was not good.

Garda Flynn said he dealt with Mr Hayes in a bedroom in the apartment and asked him what had happened. He said Mr Hayes told him that he and Ms McDermott had drunk vodka throughout the night and taken around three grams of cocaine.

“Once the cocaine ran out, he stated that she became agitated and an argument ensued and he went to a bedroom to remove himself from the argument,” said the garda.

Mr Hayes told Garda Flynn that the couple had a tempestuous relationship, that it was not the first time they had a heated argument and said it was not unusual for this to happen.

The accused also told the witness that after a few minutes Amadea McDermott came into the bedroom with a knife and said she was going to kill herself.

“He said this was not the first time this happened and he did not believe she would carry it out,” Garda Flynn added.

Mr Hayes further told the garda that a few minutes later he heard a rumbling sound and went to the living area where he found his girlfriend with a puncture wound to her abdomen.

The accused said he rang 999 for an ambulance and that the operator had told him to put pressure on the wound, which he did using a towel.

Garda Flynn said the accused was visibly intoxicated. “His eyes were wide and his speech wasn’t concise.”

He said the accused’s hands were clean with “no red marks” on them “whatsoever” but there were “red marks” on his socks.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of eight men and four women.

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