A 29-year-old woman has been sentenced to life in prison after she was found guilty of murdering her colleague by driving him off a pier into deep water.

Marta Herda, of Emoclew Road in Arklow, had denied the murder of 31-year-old Csaba Orsas at the South Pier in Arklow on 26 March 2013.

The prosecution had said she deliberately drove off the pier knowing Mr Orsas could not swim.

After more than eight hours of deliberation, the jury found her guilty of murder by an 11 to one majority.

Herda wept in court after the verdict was delivered.



The trial heard both had been in Herda's car when it crashed through a barrier and went into the water in the early hours of the morning.

She managed to swim to safety but Mr Orsas could not swim and his body was found on a nearby beach later that day.

The trial heard that they had worked together and he was in love with her, but she did not feel the same way.

She told gardaí he had spent two years following her, phoning her and sending her messages.

The prosecution claimed Herda had left her own window down and was wearing light clothing on a bitterly cold night.

Senior counsel Brendan Grehan said she had used her car as "an instrument of murder".



He told the jury that critical phone evidence showed that Herda rang Mr Orsas three times that morning and within a very short time frame, 15 minutes, he was in her car which was then driven into the water.

Mr Grehan told the jury whether she did it on the spur of the moment or thought about it beforehand was irrelevant and said the intention for murder could be formed at the time.

"Someone overheating, losing the run of themselves can commit murder," he said.

He also pointed to evidence that the handbrake had been applied and only the driver's window was down.

However, defence counsel Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha said the prosecution's case was "completely unsustainable" and did not make any sense.



He said if Herda had deliberately driven off the pier, it would be committing suicide.

He said a murder conviction could be brought in only where there was intent to kill or seriously injure.

He asked if she had a cold-hearted plan to kill him why would she have immediately alerted people there was a man in the water when she managed to get herself out after her own life was in grave danger?

He also submitted there was no evidence to support a conviction for manslaughter due to recklessness and the offence below that was dangerous driving causing death, which was not on the indictment.

Mr Ó Lideadha said it would be very unfair, if satisfied murder was out, to convict her of manslaughter because she was driving dangerously, had done wrong and nothing else was available.

"We know that sometimes drivers are distracted, maybe a husband and wife arguing," he said.

"If an argument becomes so serious that it affects driving, the argument should be stopped or the car should be stopped, but that would not fairly be called manslaughter."

Brother tells court of heartbreak over murder

A victim impact statement was read on behalf of the victim's brother, Sandro Zoltan, who had travelled from Hungary for the trial.

Mr Zoltan said the day he had to identify his brother's body his heart broke. He said he remembered every moment of it.

"He was so cold. I would never thought that this way I have to say goodbye to him. Sometimes because of the pain in my chest I want to scream."

He said he still has dreams of his brother after travelling back to Hungary and found it difficult to explain to his son, who was Czaba's godson, what had happened.

Mr Zoltan said his job at the Brooklodge Hotel was kept open for a year but he could not face returning to Ireland to live, despite that having been his long-term plan.

He said he is still afraid of water and cannot walk near it.

His mother could not be told of his brother's death at first as they were worried about her heart condition. They had to tell her because media reports spread quickly.

He added that his brother just "wanted to be happy - family, kids - things that everybody wants, but he will never have a chance for all this because he died".