Mallow hairdresser stabbed husband in the back after wine and cider binge

AN unemployed hairdresser in a doomed marriage drank six glasses of wine and seven pints of cider on the night that ended with her stabbing her husband in the back with a carving knife.

Laura Egan, 24, formerly of Castlepark Drive, Mallow, pleaded guilty to the serious assault on Gerry Egan at their home on June 14, 2008, and was given a suspended three-year sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.

Laura Egan rang 999 as soon as her husband slumped to the ground with what was a life-threatening injury. Garda John Horgan described yesterday how he responded to the call and arrived to find Mr Egan on his hands and knees in a large pool of blood.

Initially, his wife claimed there had been a row at a nightclub and some man had stabbed her husband in the back with a bottle. But shortly afterwards the gardaí found the large carving knife on the floor at the foot of the stairs within a few feet of where the victim was found.

Laura Egan then told Garda Horgan what had happened. “She said herself and her husband had been having an argument, both were pushing and shoving each other. Gerry had her pinned against the kitchen press. He said he was leaving. As he walked out she stabbed him once in the back.”

The defendant wept throughout the sentencing hearing. Never in trouble before or since, she was accompanied in court by her parents.

Laura Egan and her husband only married nine months before this incident and were about to sign mortgage papers for the house they were renting. However, they were having problems and both of them were drinking, Judge Murphy was told.

Marjorie Farrelly, defence senior counsel, said Egan phoned the gardaí to attend to her husband seconds after she stabbed him and was hysterical when they arrived.

Ms Farrelly said: “There were considerable tensions in the marriage. Alcohol became a player in the marriage and a crutch for Ms Egan from time to time. She was drinking to match the alcohol consumption of her husband. In those circumstances they were singularly unsuited to each other and the marriage finished on that evening… Unfortunately, the marriage seemed to be doomed to failure from the start.”

Judge Murphy noted that Gerry Egan had recovered physically but that understandably he still bore the emotional scars of what happened on the night.