Date Published: 24-Jan-2013

A jury has heard that the woman who denies murdering her former lover by stabbing him eighteen times with a kitchen knife, had received 37 phone calls from him in the hours preceding his death.

31 year old Maura Thornton, a native of Inverin, Connemara, denies the murder of 59 year old US national, Kevin Joyce at a rented apartment at 183, Upper Salthill , on Sunday, July 31, 2011.

The Central Criminal Court sitting in Galway heard that Maura Thornton had answered six of the 37 calls and the remainder had gone to her voice mail.

Detective Peter Conlon said the accused had received 120 phone calls in 24 hours and she had made 55 calls on her phone during the same period.

He said Joyce had also phoned Thornton’s mother’s phone nine times that Sunday afternoon. The last call was recorded 8.40p.m an hour and a half before he died.

Det. Sgt. Tom Molloy gave evidence about a series of public order type incidents involving Thornton and Joyce when their relationship ended earlier that summer.

While Joyce had caused disturbances around the city while the accused was in the company of other men, no formal complaint had ever been made to Gardai about him.

Blaise O’Carroll, defending, said on the day before Mr Joyce died he had damaged a kitchen window in his client’s apartment and had taken €54 from the windowsill.

Thornton was going to make a complaint to Gardai the following Monday, but was overtaken by the events on Sunday night.

Closing the prosecution case today, Mr Greene said there was a thread running through the trial that was suggestive of intoxication on both sides.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White and is expected to conclude tomorrow.