Court of Appeal dismisses Martin Hayes’s sentence appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal dismissed Martin Hayes’s appeal against his 12-and-a-half-year sentence for the manslaughter of his partner, Amadea McDermott. The appeal proceedings were reported on 22 July 2025.

Hayes had pleaded not guilty to murdering McDermott, 27, at her home in Rathvale Drive, Ayrfield, Coolock, on or about 20 July 2017. On 13 November 2023, a Central Criminal Court jury found him not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by a majority of 11 to one. Mr Justice Paul McDermott sentenced Hayes to 12 years and six months in prison on 28 November 2023.

Hayes told the trial that McDermott had stabbed herself and admitted using violence against her. An ex-girlfriend, Niamh Higgins, told the jury Hayes had said he helped McDermott push a knife into her stomach. Hayes denied confessing to Higgins and said she was lying. His defence also pointed to the postmortem finding that the single stab wound could be consistent with self-harm and said no DNA from Hayes was found on the suspected knife.

On appeal, Hayes argued that the sentencing judge gave excessive weight to aggravating factors and insufficient weight to mitigating factors. The Irish Times reported that the appeal court found limited mitigation and rejected his challenge to the judge’s assessment of the facts underlying the manslaughter sentence. The court also considered that the offence was aggravated by domestic violence.