Man was unable to breathe as jaw broken in to fragments, court told

Olivia Kelleher

A murder trial has heard that the jaw of a 44-year-old man was broken in to fragments rendering him unable to breathe as he was inhaling a large amount of blood in to his lungs.

A 17-year-old man, who can’t be named for legal reasons, is on trial at the Central Criminal Court in Cork charged with the murder of Barry Daly.

The father of five was found with catastrophic facial injuries outside his home in Rockview Terrace in Doneraile, Co Cork on October 2025. The teenager has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty of the manslaughter of the postman.

The jury on Friday heard evidence from Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster.

Dr Bolster said that she attended at the scene and found the deceased lying on his back. Dr Bolster said that there was a “pool of blood” under his head, heavy blood staining on the face and blood stains on the lawn. The pathologist stated that there was a head of a wedge-type golf club in the garden.

Dr Bolster carried out the postmortem examination on the deceased. She said that lungs were “extremely heavy.” She said that severe facial trauma caused bleeding in the mouth which then “aspirated to his lungs.”

There was no evidence of offensive or defensive injuries. Dr Bolster said that the cause of death was cardio-respiratory arrest due to severe facial trauma complicated by aspiration of blood.

Alcohol and cocaine were detected in Daly's system. The pathologist said that this could have accelerated the death but was not the cause of death in itself.

Dr Bolster said that Daly had sustained a fracture displacement of the jawbone on the right side, leading to fragmented pieces. She said that this was caused by a very forceful blow, or blows, with a weapon such as the head of a golf club. There was also a fracture of the palatine bone in the inner aspect of the upper lip.

Meanwhile, witness for the Prosecution Robert Byrne said he had socialised in Doneraile on October 11th, 2025. When he left a bar, he noticed that there was fighting on the street.

He said that he had subsequently heard 21-year-old Alex Deady say that Barry Daly was “knocked out over on his grass".