A 31-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his partner whose body was found with 25 stab and slash wounds at an apartment in Midleton in Co Cork in August 2024.
Adam Corcoran, with an address at John Barry House, Connolly Street in Midleton, was arraigned before the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork where he pleaded not guilty to the murder of the 27-year-old mother of two.
He also pleaded not guilty to arson at the same address on the same date.
In his opening statement to the jury of eight men and four women, Prosecution Senior Counsel Donal O'Sullivan stressed that what he was saying was not evidence but an outline of the State's case which would be that Daena Walsh was stabbed to death.
Mr O'Sullivan told jurors that Daena Walsh and Adam Corcoran had lived at John Barry House in Midleton for a number of years, and had two children.
Daena Walsh was originally from Wicklow, Adam Corcoran from Ballincollig in Co Cork.
He told jurors they would see CCTV footage gathered by investigating gardaí which shows the couple on 2 August just before 3pm going into John Barry House where they had an apartment.
There would also be evidence that just after 4pm, Mr Corcoran left the building on his own and made a 999 call in which he said his partner had stabbed herself in her stomach.
Mr O'Sullivan said when the emergency services arrived at the apartment, they found Ms Walsh dead with "wounds clear to be seen on her" but they were forced to evacuate and called the fire service as aerosol cans placed on the rings of the cooker had caught fire.
The fire service arrived and there would be evidence that there was a lot of water damage to the apartment. The mother of two was pronounced dead at the scene.
In the follow-up garda investigation, it would be alleged that knives were found in the apartment, in the living room and in the bedroom.
Daena Walsh's blood was found on the knives during an examination by Forensic Science Ireland.
The jurors would also hear evidence that a post-mortem examination found 25 separate sharp force injuries to her body - 11 stab wounds and 14 incise wounds. These wounds were clustered into groups on her face, neck, abdomen, chest and upper limbs.
The deepest wound was 11.5cm and had penetrated through her sternum and some of her clothing had lodged in the bone.
It would be alleged the wounds on her arms were consistent with defensive wounds.
Mr O'Sullivan said there was a fire "but no soot, or debris (was found) in her airways so she was dead before the fire".
"Essentially", he said, it would be the State's case "that she died from being stabbed to death".
Mr Corcoran has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
His trial continues before Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford at the Central Criminal Court in Cork. It is set to last for two weeks.
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