Welsh woman guilty of murder

An alcoholic Welsh woman has been found guilty of the murder of a Leitrim man she stabbed 13 times during a drunken row at his flat in Dublin last year.

At the Central Criminal Court today, after two and a half hours of deliberations, a jury of seven women and five men returned a unanimous verdict to find Ms Christina Williams (aged 25) guilty of the murder of Mr Andrew Foley (aged 54) at his basement flat on Nelson St, in Dublin’s north inner city on May 7, 2002. Williams had denied the charge.

Ms Williams, who appeared agitated in court several times during the three-day trial, leaned forward towards the jury as the verdict was announced.

When Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins told Ms Williams he had no option but to sentence her to the mandatory life sentence, Ms Williams looked shocked, sat down and told the jury to ‘f*** off’.

When the court rose as Mr Justice O’Higgins left, Ms Williams refused to stand up, telling prison officers “no I don’t want to stand up”.

Leave to appeal was refused to her defence counsel Mr Gerry O’Brien SC.

Speaking outside the courtroom afterwards the wife and two daughters of the deceased Mr Foley said some sort of closure had been reached with the guilty verdict.

"I’ve just sensed evil off that woman which is very unusual for me because I believe in social justice," said Mrs Foley.

"She was very concerned for herself but showed no remorse for what she had done," she added.

Mr Foley ’s eldest daughter Lorraine said “you couldn’t but be happy” at the verdict and said the family would be getting on with their lives now.

Mr Foley bled to death in an armchair in his basement flat after Ms Williams stabbed him 13 times in his eye, chest and groin, breaking the blade of one knife on him before putting a kettle of water on to boil and pouring the contents over him.

The then deputy state pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the court that the haphazard pattern of wounds suggested a struggle and that Mr Foley died from blood loss due to a punctured lung and a severed artery in the groin.

In his closing statement, defence counsel Mr O’Brien told the jury of Ms Williams’ alcoholism and "chaotic existence that would be foreign to a lot of us" during her five weeks in Ireland prior to Mr Foley’s death.

It emerged in court that she came to Ireland to visit an Irish man she had met in Wales but subsequently spent the five weeks in brief relationships with three separate men before finally meeting up with Mr Foley in a pub in Dorset St on May 7, hours before his death.

The owner of a pub on Dorset St., Mr Nicholas Maher, told the court he had noticed Ms Williams in his pub with Mr Foley that day and said she was getting money off customers to play the jukebox.

Under cross-examination by prosecuting counsel Mr Alex Owens SC yesterday, Ms Williams told the jury that she went back to Mr Foley’s flat and went to sleep in his bed for an hour or so while he went back out.

When he returned he woke her up demanding she have sex with him. When she refused he told her to get out of the flat and an argument broke out.

"He was grabbing me and touching me places I didn't want him to. He was all over me," Ms Williams said.

"I was drunk, I was an alcoholic. I remember stabbing him a couple of times. I don't know whether he bled or not, I don't know," she said. "He had me by the throat."

When asked why she felt the need to stab Mr Foley, she said she did it out of "fear for my life".

"I don't know, my head wasn't thinking right, I didn't know what I was doing," she added.

"He let go his grip and you decided to stab him again?" asked Mr Owens. "Yes," said Ms Williams.

She admitted that Mr Foley had collapsed into a chair for "a couple of minutes" when she decided to boil a kettle of water and pour it over him. She said she went for help "straight away" after that.

"I realised what I'd done and I wanted to help the man so I went out into the street to look for help."

Garda Clinton identified three kitchen knives found at the scene, the largest of which had its blade broken off.

"I think the blade broke when I was stabbing Andrew Foley," Ms Williams told her at Mountjoy Garda station.

Family members of Ms Williams sat in court to hear the verdict. Ms Williams eldest and only sister, Ms Carla Williams, gave evidence in court yesterday and described her sister's drink problem as "very bad".

Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins thanked the jury and discharged them from jury service for ten years.