Jury in Wicklow pier case can consider lesser charge of manslaughter, says judge
The jurors in the trial of a woman accused of murdering a man in Wicklow have been told they can consider the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Marta Herda of Pairc na Saile, Emoclew Road in Arklow, denies deliberately driving her colleague into the Avoca River in March 2013.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy began his charge to the jurors by asking them to remove emotion from their deliberations and just focus on the evidence presented from the witness box.
It is the prosecution’s case that Marta Herda murdered Csaba Orsas, a man she worked with at the BrookLodge hotel in Wicklow, by driving them off a pier at South Quay in Arklow on March 26, 2013.
The 29-year-old told gardaí that Orsas was in love with her and wouldn’t leave her alone.
She said he was screaming at her in the car that morning and began touching her leg.
She said she’d had enough of him and couldn’t take it anymore.
Her defence described the case against her as “completely unsustainable” and one that doesn’t make any sense.
The jury now have three options open to them: guilty of murder; not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter; or not guilty.
