A North Clare man is to be sentenced today for the killing of Ballyvaughan guest house worker Deirdre McCarthy.
45-year-old Colm Deely of School Road, Ballyvaughan was previously convicted of the murder of Deirdre McCarthy, but this verdict was later overturned and now a plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter has been accepted.
Colm Deely claimed Deirdre McCarthy was threatening to tell his wife he was cheating on her.
He went to her home near Ballyvaughan after spending the evening of Mar 27th 2011 socialising with her and others in their local pub.
He told Gardaí they were lying on her bed and that she was blackmailing him for money saying she would tell his wife and children.
In a flash, he said he had his hands around her neck. He said he panicked, put her body in his car and threw her over a wall towards the sea.
Her body washed up on Fanore beach four days later.
During his trial in 2013, the then Assistant State Pathologist Dr. Khalid Jaber gave evidence of the cause of death and contributing factors.
It later emerged that his post mortem results were not peer reviewed.
Mr. Deely’s conviction was overturned and a retrial was ordered, but the prosecution later accepted his plea to manslaughter.
In her Victim Impact Statement last week, Deirdre’s sister Helen Geoghegan described her as a “kind and easy going person who lived a very ordinary life,” and described her killing as “brutal, cold and callous”.
Colm Deely will be sentenced for that killing later today.
