{"id":349838,"date":"2026-03-17T00:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/349838\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T00:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:10:08","slug":"murder-accused-admits-killing-daena-walsh-despite-previously-insisting-she-died-by-suicide-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/349838\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder accused admits killing Daena Walsh despite previously insisting she died by suicide \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man accused of murdering his partner in Co Cork<\/a> has told a jury he killed her despite previously telling the emergency services and garda\u00ed<\/a> that she died by suicide.<\/p>\n

Adam Corcoran (31) denies the murder of Daena Walsh (27) at the apartment they shared in John Barry House, Connolly Street, Midleton, on August 2nd, 2024, and causing criminal damage by arson to the apartment on the same occasion.<\/p>\n

Corcoran entered the witness box at the Central Criminal Court<\/a> sitting in Cork on Monday. During the course of 30 minutes of cross-examination by prosecution counsel Donal O\u2019Sullivan, he admitted, \u201cYes, I killed her,\u201d and accepted it was not done in self-defence.<\/p>\n

Asked why he was now saying he killed Walsh when he had told everybody else on the day and later during Garda interviews that she had killed herself, Corcoran replied: \u201cThat\u2019s what I believed happened at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan reminded Corcoran that when he was questioned by garda\u00ed on August 3rd, 2024, about what had happened, he told them: \u201cI don\u2019t f***ing know, I\u2019ve nothing else to say to you.\u201d <\/p>\n

Corcoran said he had no recollection of saying those things to garda\u00ed during the interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said [at interview] I didn\u2019t kill her because at the time that was what I believed,\u201d he said, adding that it had taken him until \u201cmonths after\u201d to remember what had happened. <\/p>\n

He denied inventing a story to fit the facts of the case.<\/p>\n

Corcoran told defence counsel Brendan Grehan he had known Daena Walsh for 10 years or so and they had two children together. <\/p>\n

He said that in the fortnight before her death, they had been drinking and taking cocaine as well as prescription drugs including Xanax, Valium and benzodiazepines.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Man accused of Daena Walsh\u2019s murder told garda\u00ed he did not kill his \u2018soul mate\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said they had been awake all night after taking cocaine and benzodiazepines and were planning to go into Cork city on the afternoon of August 2nd, 2024, to buy more benzodiazepines and look for an engagement ring. However, he said they had no change for the bus and returned to the apartment.<\/p>\n

He said Walsh accused him of eyeing up a girl on the bus, but he assured her that he was not. When they returned to the flat, he said he went into the bedroom and rolled a joint and called out to Walsh, who was in the kitchen, but she did not answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went into the kitchen. Daena was by the cooker, she had the red-handled knife, she was self-harming,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was cutting her [left] arm. She started shouting at me, saying that I had cheated on her. I tried to reassure her I had not. She was screaming she was going to end it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was hitting me and headbutting me and lashing out. I caught her by the wrists,\u201d said Corcoran. <\/p>\n

He said he went to grab the knife from Walsh but it fell, hitting her first in the face and then on the arm. He said that when he pulled it away from her arm, it had left a big wound.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Pathologist found 25 knife wounds on Daena Walsh\u2019s body, murder trial toldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know where the knife was. I was lashing out at her. I got on top of her. I hit her twice in the chest. She stopped moving. I was out of breath. I was dizzy. I felt wet on my T-shirt, the red knife was in my hand. I took off my T-shirt and put it and the red knife in a bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corcoran told Grehan he could not remember how Walsh ended up with the various injuries that she had. While admitting he must have caused some of them, the accused said he never had any intention to kill Walsh or cause her serious harm. He said he loved her \u201cvery much\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prosecution counsel asked Corcoran how exactly Walsh had ended up with 25 stab wounds, including to her face and left arm, which was almost amputated at the elbow. <\/p>\n

He said it happened when he grabbed the knife from Walsh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI dropped the knife and it hit her face first and then when I caught it, it hit her arm in the swing of the catch. There was already a cut on her arm and when I pulled it out, the wound was much bigger.\u201d <\/p>\n

He denied that this version of events was \u201cnonsense and lies\u201d. <\/p>\n

The jury previously heard evidence from State Pathologist Dr Yvonne McCartney, who said Walsh\u2019s 25 knife wounds were caused by a blue sharp knife found in the apartment rather than a red serrated knife. <\/p>\n

Corcoran said he never saw Walsh with the blue knife and did not know how it ended up with blood on the blade in a handbag in the apartment\u2019s bedroom. <\/p>\n

The case continues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man accused of murdering his partner in Co Cork has told a jury he killed her despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,42851,46,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-349838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-cork","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}