A COURT in Spain heard closing arguments yesterday in the trial of a man charged with throwing his wife to her death from a Marbella hotel balcony in 2000.

Dermot McArdle, 39, from Dundalk, told Malaga’s criminal court that his wife, Kelly Ann Corcoran, had tripped and fallen while running towards their three-year-old son who was leaning over a low balcony railing. “We are all Catholics and we would not lie,” he told the court.

McArdle denies prosecution claims that he pushed his 28-year-old wife to her death from the fourth-floor balcony of a Marbella hotel where the couple were on holiday. He testified yesterday that he had rejected two offers of a reduced sentence because he is innocent.

On Friday the prosecution changed the charge against McArdle from murder to manslaughter caused by reckless endangerment, after the court was shown video reconstructions and was given evidence that the woman’s fall was consistent with a feet-first drop. A pathologist said there was no evidence of bruises or marks consistent with a struggle prior to Corcoran's fall.

The prosecution is now seeking a four-year sentence instead of the 14-year sentence initially sought.

The court heard that McArdle had acted violently towards his wife in the past and that they had a heated row on the night of Corcoran’s death. McArdle’s sister denied that he was “violent, aggressive or domineering” towards his wife.

The Dundalk man claims that his wife “slipped from his grasp” as he tried to save her from toppling over a balcony railing. He testified that he and his wife were “very happy together”.

On the night in question they had gone out for dinner and had several drinks. She had become angry with him when he spoke to another woman. They returned to the hotel and, as they argued, she noticed their son leaning over a balcony railing. She ran to grab him, McArdle said, and tripped, plunging over the railing.

“I grabbed her by one hand and screamed for help,” he told the jury. “But in the end I couldn’t hold on and she slipped from my grasp.”

The couple’s son, Mark McArdle, 11, testified last week. A toddler at the time of his mother’s death, Mark reportedly fainted while giving in-camera evidence on Thursday. He was given oxygen and resumed his evidence after a 30-minute recess. Corcoran’s sister, Caroline Moran, testified that the boy told her after the incident: “Daddy bold. Daddy pushed mummy.”

The jury will begin its deliberations tomorrow. It will be given a list of questions by the judge which it must answer before reaching a verdict.

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