Daniel Murtagh sentenced to life for Nadine Lott murder

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

Daniel Murtagh was sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court for the murder of his former partner Nadine Lott. The proceedings were reported on 4 October 2021.

Murtagh had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. A jury unanimously convicted him of murder on 5 August 2021.

Lott was attacked at her apartment in St Mary’s Court, Arklow, Co Wicklow, on 14 December 2019. She never regained consciousness and died three days later, on 17 December, at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

The jury rejected Murtagh’s defence that he was too intoxicated to form the intent to murder. Defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC had sought a manslaughter verdict on the grounds of lack of intent due to alcohol intoxication. Prosecution counsel John O’Kelly SC argued that there was no defence of intoxication and that Murtagh had the clearest intent.

Mr Justice Michael MacGrath imposed the life sentence, backdated to 16 December 2019, when Murtagh went into custody.