Darren Murphy jailed for life for Cork murder

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

Darren Murphy was jailed for life for murdering Olivia Dunlea. A jury at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork convicted him on 15 June 2018 of murdering her on 17 February 2013. The proceedings were reported on 15 June 2018.

Murphy pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. The Director of Public Prosecutions did not accept his manslaughter plea.

Olivia Dunlea, 36, was found with multiple stab wounds in a badly burned bedroom at her home in Pembroke Crescent, Passage West. Gardaí recovered a knife from a sink and a phone from a toilet bowl after the fire. The report said Murphy later told gardaí that he “snapped” and stabbed her in the neck before setting fire to her quilt and then starting a fire in the middle of her kitchen table.

The case heard that Olivia Dunlea was still alive when Murphy set the fires but was unable to raise the alarm because of her injuries. The report said there had been three separate trials: a previous conviction was overturned on a technicality, and a jury was unable to agree a verdict on another occasion.