Prosecution seeks murder conviction in Marta Herda trial

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

Marta Herda has pleaded not guilty to murdering her colleague Csaba Orsos. Her trial was before a jury at the Central Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 20 July 2016.

The charge concerns the death of Csaba Orsos at South Quay, Arklow, on 26 March 2013. Both were in a car belonging to Marta Herda when it entered the water. She escaped from the harbour; his body was found on a nearby beach later that day.

In his closing speech, prosecutor Brendan Grehan SC said the prosecution alleged she deliberately drove into the water, using the car as an “instrument of murder”. He asked the jury for a guilty verdict.

He said the case relied largely on circumstantial evidence and cited CCTV and phone evidence. He said Marta Herda called Csaba Orsos three times that morning.

The report said she had told gardaí he had followed her, phoned her and sent her messages for two years. In statements read by Brendan Grehan, she said he wanted her to drive to the beach and was shouting angrily.

Brendan Grehan said she claimed not to remember phoning him or how he came to be in her car, although she could remember everything up to that point. He described this as a “convenient loss of memory”.

The report said the jury would hear from the defence on Thursday.