Man (31) found guilty of murdering partner and setting fire to their apartment on same day

Olivia Kelleher

A man has been found guilty of the murder of his partner, who was found dead with 25 knife wounds and a partially amputated left arm in a burning apartment in Co Cork two years ago.

Adam Corcoran (31) was also found guilty of setting fire to the apartment that he shared with Daena Walsh at John Barry House, Connolly Street in Midleton, Co Cork on the date of the murder on August 2nd, 2024.

During the trial at the Central Criminal Court in Cork, prosecution barrister Donal O’Sullivan put it to Corcoran that he had tried to dismember his partner after he killed her. Corcoran vehemently denied this suggestion.

He also refuted suggestions that he set fire to the apartment in a bid to conceal his crime. Aerosol cans had been placed on a ring of the cooker in the apartment, which was then turned on.

The jury deliberated for two hours and 30 minutes before returning with their unanimous verdicts.

Judge Siobhan Lankford thanked the jury for their diligent service in such a “solemn manner.”

She excused them from jury service for a period of five years.

Walsh, originally from Roundwood in Wicklow, suffered 51 injuries to her face, neck, chest, abdomen and limbs.

One of the wounds to her chest was 11.5cm deep. It had penetrated through her sternum and some of her clothing had lodged in the bone. A bead from jewellery in the shape of a star was also embedded in the bone.

State Pathologist, Dr Yvonne McCartney, had told the jury of eight men and four women that no soot or debris was found in the airways of Walsh at postmortem. This meant that she was dead when the fire was started.

Dr McCartney indicated that a number of the stab wounds were independently fatal. In particular, she referenced a cluster of wounds over Walsh’s heart —four of which had pierced the right atrium. Four wounds had punctured her lungs and another her aorta.

Meanwhile, the jury previously heard evidence that Corcoran had called the emergency services on August 2nd, 2024 claiming that his partner, and the mother of his two children, had stabbed herself.

He told gardaí that Walsh was his “soulmate” and that he planned to marry her and buy a house with her.

Corcoran had opted to give evidence for the defence. Whilst under cross-examination by O’Sullivan for the prosecution, he admitted “Yes, I killed her, yes.” He also accepted that it wasn’t in self-defence.

O’Sullivan put it to the accused that he had “attacked Daena” stabbing her so “repeatedly and ferociously” that the knife went through her breast bone four times. Corcoran insisted, “that is not what happened.”

He was asked why he told the operator who answered his 999 call that Walsh had attempted suicide. He said that is what he believed at the time.

He stressed that at that point he “didn’t know what had happened.” Corcoran said that it took “months” for him to remember what had happened.

Whilst being questioned by defence barrister, Brendan Grehan, Corcoran said that he and the late Walsh had two children together and that he loved her. The native of Ballincollig in Co Cork indicated that they both had issues with substance abuse.

Corcoran said that he and Walsh were drinking and taking cocaine and prescription drugs “nonstop, every day,” in the fortnight before her death.

He recalled the morning of August 2nd, 2024. He claimed that the pair were attempting to sleep, having been up all night.

He stated that they couldn’t sleep so they decided to go to Cork city to get a “couple of Benzos” as they only had “fifteen or so left.” He said that they also wanted to look at engagement rings.

He said that when they didn’t have change to board the bus, they returned to their apartment.

Corcoran stated that Walsh accused him of eyeing up a woman he saw on the bus. He claimed that he subsequently found her self-harming in the kitchen.

When asked if he remembered how Walsh got her injuries that day, he replied no. When further questioned, he said “I must have done them.”

Grehan further asked his client about a conversation he had with a guard at the scene that day in which he is alleged to have said that he tried to save Walsh and that she had told him that she loved him and that it (her alleged suicide attempt) wasn’t his fault.

Corcoran said that he “didn’t really remember that.”

The jury previously heard that Corcoran had told gardaí that Walsh was his “soulmate.”

In his garda interviews, he stated that he planned to marry her and that they were going to buy a house together.

In her charge to the jury, Judge Lankford said that two verdicts were open to the jury on the most serious charge — guilty of murder or not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.

“(A verdict of) not guilty (of murder) is not open to you given that Mr Corcoran has said he killed Ms Walsh,” she said.