A MAN ON trial for murder has claimed in evidence to a jury that his then partner carried out the killing and he tried to protect her as he believed she was pregnant with his child. 

Daniel Hourigan (33), who is originally from Farranree in Cork city, is on trial at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in the city charged with the murder of 61-year-old Michael Foley. He denies the murder of the west Cork native. 

Foley lived in a Housing First property at Annville, Barrett’s Place in Macroom, Co Cork. He was found dead by a care worker on 6 February 2024. 

Hourigan opted to give evidence to the jury this afternoon. His former partner Linda O’Flynn, who is a native of Hollyhill in Cork city, is not a party to this trial. 

Hourigan said that Foley was a “relative through marriage” and that he had stayed in his home in Macroom for six weeks in 2023 when he was in need of accommodation. 

He said that he had gone to the home of Foley in Macroom on 31 January 2024 accompanied by O’Flynn. The then couple stayed overnight. 

He told the jury that he woke during the night to the “sound of the place being broken up and stuff being moved around”.

Hourigan said that he got out of bed and went to the door of the kitchen where he saw O’Flynn. He indicated that his then partner “was freaking out”.

“Her hands were on her head. She was not kind of making sense at first. I said, ‘Linda what are you after doing?’ Michael was on the floor. I saw the pool of blood.”

Hourigan said that he asked O’Flynn to call for an ambulance but she said that there was “no ambulance being rang”.

He said that he had tried to lift Foley on to the sofa but found himself unable to do so. He stated that he put a cushion under his head and checked for a pulse. He detected a faint pulse. He indicated that when he “looked at him” (Foley) first it “looked like he was asleep”.

He stated that at that point O’Flynn was saying “help me, help me”.

He said that he started wiping the floor. He also claimed that O’Flynn was “bagging stuff in a black bag”.

Hourigan stated that he went to the bathroom to wash his hands and that when he returned his then partner had already left the property. He claimed O’Flynn was at the end of the road when he left the house. He said that they subsequently boarded a bus to Cork city. 

He stated that he felt a “wave of emotions” on the bus. However, Hourigan said that O’Flynn was acting “like nothing had happened”.

Hourigan told the jury that at the time his belief was that O’Flynn was pregnant with his baby. He said that Foley had agreed to be the Godfather to his unborn child. 

Hourigan insisted he had “no part or role in Michael’s murder”.

Jane Hyland, SC for the Prosecution, put it to Hourigan that he had told gardaí a number of different versions of what had occurred. Over the course of the cross-examination Hourigan insisted that he was “protecting Linda from what she had done”.

Hyland asked Hourigan why he hadn’t called an ambulance for a man “who was like an uncle” to him. He said that O’Flynn was in possession of the phone. 

Hyland asked him why he was “holding hands” with O’Flynn on the bus given what he claimed had occurred. He said that O’Flynn had “held his hand”. 

He added that he was “distressed” and “shocked by seeing what had been done”.

Hourigan said that by the time he got on the bus his focus was on getting his next fix of drugs rather than on calling an ambulance. 

“That’s how bad I was in my addiction.”

Hyland put it to Hourigan that the blows and wounds inflicted on Foley were made by a person “with strength”. He again insisted that he “didn’t inflict them injuries”.

Hourigan also claimed that he had received a threatening phonecall from an unidentified person that he (Hourigan) “would be next if I did not keep Linda O’Flynn out of it”.

The trial will continue tomorrow in front of Judge Siobhan Lankford and a jury of six men and six women.