'I was screaming ... I had to fight for my life in the water', trial told

Marta Herda who is accused of murdering Csaba Orsos by driving him into Arklow Harbour

Natasha Reid

A woman charged with murdering her colleague by driving him into a harbour, where he drowned, told gardai that she had to 'fight for my life' under the water.

Portions of her garda interviews were played to the Central Criminal Court yesterday on the tenth day of her trial.

Csabas Rosas

Marta Herda of Pairc Na Saile, Emoclew Road, Arklow, Co Wicklow is accused of the murder of 31-year-old Csaba Orsos on March 26, 2013.

The 29-year-old Polish waitress has pleaded not guilty to murdering the Hungarian at South Quay, Arklow.

Fighting

The prosecution played the excerpts from her garda interviews yesterday, following the cross-examination of her interviewer, Detective Sergeant Fergus O'Brien.

She had told the gardai that they had been fighting in the car as they approached the harbour in her car.

"He was screaming. I want him to stop," she said on the video.

"We hit the barrier. Then I get the shock and look at him. I said a word. He said some word as well and water was already…"

She said it was dark.

"Since that, I don't remember nothing. I'm feeling that I'm not in the car. I'm in the water. I was trying to, like this, all the time to get out of the water and I couldn't," she said, gesturing.

"I tried harder and harder. Then I feel something on my feet.

"I was screaming his name, but I knew there was no air.

"The waves were taking me down and up, down and up. I had to fight for my life."

The trial has heard that the accused and deceased had worked together, that he was in love with her, but that she didn't feel the same way. She told gardai he had spent two years following her, phoning her and sending her text messages.

Messages

The detective sergeant had been asked by the defence what he thought she meant when she said in her initial statement: 'When I drove into the water, I wanted this all to stop'.

"She wanted it to stop, all the phone calls and text messages she was getting," testified D Sgt O'Brien.

Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, defending, suggested that she was describing what was happening in the car when she said she wanted it to stop.

"I suppose, yes, it's one interpretation," said the witness.

"But, you think it's open to that interpretation," said the barrister.

"Yes," he replied.

The trial continues.

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