The Court of Appeal has upheld Martin Hayes’s conviction for the manslaughter of his partner Amadea McDermott, who died from a stab wound to her abdomen in July 2017.
Hayes was tried for murder in the Central Criminal Court. On 13 November 2023, the jury acquitted him of murder but convicted him of manslaughter by majority verdict.
The prosecution case included evidence from the couple’s daughter, who was seven when her mother died. She later told Garda specialist interviewers that she had seen Hayes stab her mother and gave evidence at trial to that effect. Her grandmother also testified that, shortly after being brought from the family home on the night of the death, the child said her father had stabbed her mother.
Hayes denied stabbing Ms McDermott. He told the jury that she had stabbed herself after an argument. A former partner of Hayes also testified that he had confessed to involvement in the stabbing, although she had previously given Gardaí a materially different account of what he had told her. Hayes said both witnesses were lying.
On appeal, Hayes argued that the jury should have been discharged after his former partner referred to his being in custody and said she feared his release on bail. The Court of Appeal held that the evidence arose naturally from questioning about why she had changed her account and that any prejudice was adequately addressed by the trial judge’s direction to disregard his custody status.
The court also upheld the admission of the grandmother’s evidence. It found that the child’s spontaneous statement was relevant to rebut the defence suggestion that her later account had been influenced by discussions within her maternal family.
Further challenges to the judge’s directions, the taking of the child’s evidence on oath and the handling of inconsistencies were rejected.
The court also held that manslaughter was properly left to the jury as an alternative if it found Hayes inflicted the fatal injury but was not satisfied he intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. The conviction appeal was dismissed.