{"id":532361,"date":"2026-07-04T07:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T07:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532361\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T07:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T07:29:16","slug":"scientific-expert-confirms-bloodied-palm-print-found-at-murder-scene-matched-that-of-accused-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532361\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientific expert confirms bloodied palm print found at murder scene matched that of accused \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fingerprint expert has told a jury at the trial of a man (32) accused of murder that a bloodied palm print found at the scene provided a match with the defendant\u2019s palm print.<\/p>\n

Dr Craig Mullen, a fingerprint expert with Forensic Science Ireland<\/a>, told the jury of six men and six women at the Central Criminal Court<\/a> in Cork<\/a> on Friday he found a palm print on the architrave of a door frame at the home of Michael Foley (61) that matched the palm print of Daniel Hourigan.<\/p>\n

Hourigan, a native of Farranree in Cork city has denied the murder on February 1st, 2024, of Foley from Clonakilty in west Cork, at Annville, Barrett\u2019s Place, Macroom, Co Cork, where he lived alone in accommodation providing by the agency Housing First.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Mullen appeared by video-link and said he was an expert in ridge analysis in fingerprints and palm prints. He examined a palm print taken from the architrave leading to the double bedroom in Foley\u2019s flat and found it matched a palm print they had taken from Hourigan.<\/p>\n

Earlier, another scientist, Dr Yvonne O\u2019Dowd, also from Forensic Science Ireland testified she had examined a knife recovered by garda\u00ed from a bin at the Bus \u00c9ireann depot in Tralee which garda\u00ed<\/a> say was taken from Foley\u2019s flat by the accused.<\/p>\n

She said the knife was 33cm long, comprising a 12.5cm handle and a 20.5cm blade. There was blood staining on both sides of the handle and blade and all four samples she examined provided a match to the murder victim.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dowd told prosecution counsel, Jane Hyland, that following an analysis of the DNA found on the knife and a comparison with a DNA sample taken from Foley, she found the blood found on the knife was 1,000 million times more likely to be that of Foley than of somebody else<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dowd also said she believed that an impact blood spatter, which extended 160cm across the wall in a wedge shape behind a sofa where Foley was found lying, was more likely to have been caused by more than one impact.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Det Garda Jimmy O\u2019Sullivan, a member of the Cork County Garda Technical Bureau told the court he had entered Foley\u2019s home at Annville and noticed him lying in front of the sofa on his right side with a cushion under the right side of his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a gash or slash wound to the front his head and there was a significant gash to the inside of his left wrist as well as a gash to the front of his left hand,\u201d said O\u2019Sullivan as he confirmed that there was a significant blood spatter behind the sofa.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Det Sgt Danielle Hegarty of Macroom Garda station confirmed noticing Foley\u2019s injuries when she visited the scene on February 6th.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear he was deceased,\u201d said Hegarty before Dr Gerard Murphy confirmed he pronounced Foley dead at 7.10pm on the same date.<\/p>\n

The case continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fingerprint expert has told a jury at the trial of a man (32) accused of murder that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,42851,46,204660,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-532361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-cork","tag-forensic-science-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532361","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=532361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}