Oliver Hayes has broken down in tears in the witness box after telling the Central Criminal Court he’s sorry for killing West Cork widow Anne Corcoran.

The painter and decorator from Clancool Terrace, Bandon also admits robbing and falsely imprisoning the 60 year old in January last year but denies her murder.

In tears, Oliver Hayes told the jury ‘I’m sorry, I can’t change what happened…I wish I could’.

In his evidence he’s described tying up and gagging Anne Corcoran in a bedroom at his house, before hitting her 3 times with a stick and then twice more with a counter top.

He said he hit her ‘easy’ as he only intended to knock her out, and that the following morning he was shocked to find her dead.

He told the court that he knew he was in a lot of trouble and that he had to cover his trail.

He said it took him a couple of days to figure out what to do with the body – but he eventually burned buried it in the woods at Garretstown.