Murder accused will admit strangling partner, court hears

Updated / Tuesday, 2 Jul 2024 18:29

A 36-year-old man on trial for murder will admit that he strangled his partner to death at the home they shared in Co Meath, a barrister has told the Central Criminal Court.

Senior Counsel Sean Guerin opened the trial for the prosecution of Andrei Dobra, telling the jury that it will have to consider whether Mr Dobra was suffering from a mental disorder when he killed 30-year-old Ioana Mihaela Pacala.

Mr Guerin said the accused and Ms Pacala, both Romanian nationals, were in a relationship and had recently moved to a duplex apartment in Ratoath.

During a phone conversation on 12 November 2022, Mr Dobra told a woman he “thought he had killed Ioana”. The woman contacted the emergency services.

When gardaí arrived, Mr Dobra was “calm in appearance”, Mr Guerin said, and led them to Ms Pacala’s body in a bedroom of their home.

An ambulance crew that arrived around the same time will say that she was “clearly dead” and there were indications that she had been dead for some time, Mr Guerin added.

State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster concluded that Ms Pacala was strangled and died from a lack of oxygen to the brain.