‘It was not premeditated’, accused told court in Cork murder trial

The man accused of murdering 61-year-old Michael Foley turned to the detective sitting beside him at Bandon Courthouse after his first court appearance in February 2024, and said: “Fintan, it was not premeditated”, a court has heard.

Detective Garda Fintan Coffey was sitting beside Daniel Hourigan after Mr Hourigan was charged with murder and had his first court appearance in the case.

Prosecution senior counsel Jane Hyland said to Det Gda Coffey yesterday at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork: “You accompanied him to the courthouse. At 10 to 1pm on that date after his case, he turned to you and said something.” The witness replied: “He said: ‘Fintan, it was not premeditated.’”

Throughout Friday in the trial, memos of Garda interviews with Mr Hourigan were read to the jury.

They were carried out between February 14 and his first court appearance on the murder charge on February 16, 2024.

In the first interview, he said to gardaí: “Why am I arrested when I done nothing? It is beyond me. What puts me here is what I want to know. If you are looking for someone, you are looking in the wrong place looking at me.”

Mr Hourigan said that, through a grand aunt, he was related to the late Michael Foley, and said: “The man was like an uncle to me.”

He said he stayed in Michael’s home in May/June 2023 and was not there since, and last spoke to him on December 17, 2023, when Michael brought some of his clothing to Cork city to return to him.

In a later interview he was shown CCTV which gardaí said showed Mr Hourigan and Linda O’Flynn arriving in Macroom on January 31, 2024, and leaving the following morning. He replied at interview: “All I am doing is getting on and off the bus. I am co-operating. I am not a murderer. I am innocent. Michael was grand that morning when I left. I got up and said: ‘Michael, look after yourself’, and left. Two weeks later I heard he was dead. I nearly had a heart attack.

“One sure thing, I did not kill Mick. He was alive that morning. I don’t care what anyone says, he was alive when we were leaving... He was alive that morning. I am here to clear my name.”

It was put to him by gardaí that a bag left in the cargo hold of the bus from Macroom to Cork on February 1, 2024, was later found to contain a knife with Mr Foley’s blood. He was shown a picture of the knife and said: “I have never seen it in my life. How could Michael’s blood be on a knife in my bag? He was fine when I left him that morning.”

In a later interview when Mr Hourigan was told that an inference could be drawn from any answer he might give, he was asked: “Your left palm print in Michael Foley’s blood was on the door frame of his bedroom at 4 Annville, Macroom, the home of Michael Foley, the house where his dead body was discovered on February 6, 2024.”

Mr Hourigan replied: “No comment.” The nine men and three women were asked by Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford to return to court again on November 17 for the continuing trial.

Daniel Hourigan, aged 32, originally from Farranree in Cork city, and Linda O’Flynn, aged 32, originally from the Hollyhill area of Cork city, both deny the murder of Mr Foley, aged 61, at his home in Macroom between January 31 and February 1, 2024. Each defendant effectively blames the other. To the murder charge, each of them replied not guilty to murder but guilty of impeding the prosecution of another person.