The Court of Appeal has allowed Darren Murphy’s appeal against his murder conviction for the killing of Olivia Dunlea at her home in Passage West, County Cork.
Murphy was convicted of murder at the Central Criminal Court on May 29, 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment. At the start of his trial he had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter, a plea the prosecution did not accept.
Olivia Dunlea died after Murphy inflicted severe stab wounds to her neck in February 2013 and then set fire to her bedroom and other parts of the house. Murphy admitted the killing and arson but maintained that he had lost control after becoming enraged by comments concerning another man with whom Ms Dunlea had previously had a relationship.
His appeal raised several issues, but the Court of Appeal decided the case on the trial judge’s directions concerning provocation.
The judge had correctly read established legal principles to the jury. However, the appeal court held that those principles were not adequately connected to the evidence in Murphy’s case. A jury charge must do more than recite abstract law, the court said; it must explain how the law can apply to the facts the jury has heard.
More importantly, the trial judge told jurors at the end of his charge that a guilty verdict for murder was appropriate if Murphy killed Ms Dunlea with an intention to kill or cause serious injury. That was incorrect because provocation can reduce murder to manslaughter even where such an intention exists.
Defence counsel raised the problem before the jury retired, but the trial judge declined to recall and correct the direction. The Court of Appeal held that this was an error.
The appeal was therefore allowed. The judgment did not determine Murphy’s other appeal grounds, including challenges concerning a Garda interview and aspects of the state pathologist’s evidence, and it did not state the next procedural step following the successful appeal.