A man accused of the murder of his partner who was stabbed to death told his trial today that he killed her but doesn't remember doing it despite previously telling gardaí she had died by suicide.
31-year-old Adam Corcoran was giving evidence on the sixth day of his trial for the murder of his partner Daena Walsh at their home in Midleton on 2 August 2024.
He has also pleaded not guilty to arson.
Warning: Some readers may find details in this report distressing
In cross-examination at the Central Criminal Court in Cork today, he also denied trying to dismember her body before trying to set their home on fire.
Earlier, he told Defence Counsel Brendan Grehan SC that the deceased had a knife with a red handle in her right hand that afternoon in their kitchen.
She was self-harming, he claimed, shouting at him that he was cheating on her and she was "sick of it, she was going to end it all".
Mr. Corcoran claimed "she was swinging at him". He said he grabbed her by the wrist "she was hitting me and headbutting me, she was lashing out. I didn't know where the knife was. I started lashing out at her, she fell over, I was on top of her".
He told Defence Counsel Brendan Grehan SC he "hit her twice in the chest, she stopped moving. I was out of breath. I was very dizzy. When I came around, I felt wet on my t-shirt and the red knife was in my hand, she pulled at it. I dropped the knife, it was going to hit her face so I grabbed it".
He told Mr Grehan that he ran from the flat, but returned with a neighbour and then called 999.
"I didn't know what happened. I told the operator I thought she committed suicide," he told Mr. Grehan.
Asked if he remembered telling Det. Inspector Cormac O'Bric that he tried to save her and that she said "I love you so much, it wasn't your fault", Mr. Corcoran said he couldn't remember anything he said to the guard.
Asked what his position was now on all the different injuries she had, Mr. Corcoran replied to Mr. Grehan "I must have done (sic)".
Asked if he intended to kill her, he replied "no".Asked if he loved her, he said "very much". Asked if he knew how the fire started, he said "no".
In follow-up cross-examination, Prosecution Senior Counsel Donal O'Sullivan asked Mr. Corcoran if he had been acting in self-defence. Mr. Corcoran replied "no".
He asked him if he was saying it was an accident. He said "no".
Mr. O'Sullivan asked him about his claims of dropping the knife during the fight. Mr. Corcoran said what happened was "as it fell I caught it and on the swing of the catch, it went into her arm where there was already a cut".
"So it got stuck and when you pulled it out, the wound got much bigger", Mr. O'Sullivan asked. Mr. Corcoran replied "yeah".
Mr. O'Sullivan said "This is nonsense. You are making up a story to fit the facts. You are trying to say it hit her face and her elbow. Did it bounce into her neck too?"
He replied: "I don't know".
Mr. O'Sullivan asked him where the blue knife with the serrated edges was. Mr. Corcoran said he didn't know.
"You disposed of your shirt in a bag, and the red knife in the bin".
"The blue knife along with your tie is found in a bag in the bedroom. How did it get into the bag?"
"I don't know".
"It wasn't you who put the aerosol cans on the cooker?", Mr. Corcoran replied "no".
Mr. O'Sullivan said he would put it to him that the blue knife was "the instrument of her death and you used it multiple times".
He challenged him on his version of events, saying he attacked Daena Walsh.
"You stabbed her repeatedly and ferociously. The blue knife went through her breastbone four times, isn't that what happened?"
Mr. Corcoran replied: "I don't know".
Mr. O'Sullivan said the court and jury of 8 men and 4 women heard evidence that the injury to the mother of two's left arm was carried out by a bread knife, with serrated edges, post mortem.
"Essentially, you did that to dismember the body", the prosecution counsel said. Mr. Corcoran replied "no".
The defendant denied that when this didn't work, he decided to put the aerosol cans on the cooker to start a fire.
Mr. O'Sullivan asked Mr. Corcoran if he was saying that she hadn't taken her own life.
He replied: "Yes, I killed her, yes".
"But why did you say it was a suicide to 999?", Mr. O'Sullivan asked.
"That is what I believed at the time, I didn't know what happened".
Mr. O'Sullivan put it to the defendant that he lied repeatedly to the jury.
"You lied from the start, to the 999 operator, to the guards on the day, to the guards in the days after, and you are lying now".
Mr. Corcoran denied this.
His trial before Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford continues.
