Man begged attacker to ‘please stop’, court hears

A WOMAN has told a court how she heard a man alleged to have been fatally stabbed by her ex-boyfriend begging his alleged attacker to stop.

Amy Quigley was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of John Flaherty, aged 25, of Ard Daire, Ferrybank, Waterford, who denies the murder of 27-year-old Patrick Murphy at 42 The Glen, Waterford, on June 20 of last year.

The Central Criminal Court, sitting in Waterford, heard last week that Flaherty punched Mr Murphy, then obtained two knives from the kitchen of Ms Quigley’s house and fatally stabbed Mr Murphy after seeing him in bed with Ms Quigley.

Ms Quigley, aged 25, told the court yesterday that the relationship between John Flaherty and herself was “on and off” for about 10 years.

On the evening of June 19 last year, she met with Mr Murphy and they ended up in her house. Two of her children, aged one and two, were in the house with them. The eldest child was staying with the step-father of Flaherty. She had all three children with Flaherty.

After having some drinks, she and Patrick went up to bed and her son was asleep in the bed at the time.

“Did you become intimate?” Patrick McCarty SC, prosecuting, asked her.

“Yes,” she said, adding that they did not continue. “I stopped it. After that, we were just talking for a few minutes and then fell asleep.”

When she woke, she saw Flaherty — to whom she had previously given a key — in the room and heard a thumping noise. Mr Murphy ran out of the room, Flaherty followed him and she heard Mr Murphy saying, “please John stop, please John stop”.

She went into her other child’s bedroom and, after some minutes, Flaherty came in and punched her a number of times and hit her with a knife on the leg, before going back downstairs.

“I could hear John shouting again and could hear Patrick again, begging him to stop.”

She initially told gardaí Mr Murphy was sleeping downstairs while she slept upstairs because she was embarrassed, in shock, and thought her family would be ashamed. She later told gardaí the truth.

The court heard last week that Mr Murphy was previously in a relationship with her sister, Louise.

Cross-examining the witness, Giolaiosa O Lideadha SC, defending, said that Mr Murphy was a “consistent” heroin-user and it was understandable that Flaherty was angry when he saw him in bed with Flaherty’s sleeping child and Ms Quigley.

She accepted that, from Flaherty’s point of view, both Mr Murphy and her sister Louise were involved in taking heroin, and accepted that Flaherty was “very much against heroin”.

Mr Ó Lideadh said that Flaherty could have believed there was a “sexual-type situation” between her and Mr Murphy, and the witness accepted this.

The trial continues today.