Welsh woman denies murder

A 25-year-old Welsh woman accused of stabbing a Leitrim man 13 times with three knives and then pouring boiling water over him has pleaded not guilty to his murder at the Central Criminal Court today.

“I just went too far, things can go too far. I just stabbed him four or five times, once in the eye,” Ms Christina Williams allegedly told gardaí in a statement last year.

Ms Williams denies murdering Mr Andrew Foley (aged 54) at his basement flat in Nelson St, Dublin 7 on May 7, 2002.

Opening the case for the State, Mr Alex Owens SC described how Mr Foley had met Ms Williams in a pub on Dorset St in Dublin city centre on the day of his death.

Originally from Dromahair, Co Leitrim, Mr Foley had been living in Dublin for several years working as a carpenter.

“Christina Williams had only arrived in Ireland from North Wales a few weeks before and had been in The Meeting Pint pub since 11am. She was friendly and appeared to be intimate with Mr Foley, that is to say, they were kissing and fondling. They had consumed a lot of drink,” Mr Owens told the court.

Wearing a black suit and purple blouse, Ms Williams smirked several times from the dock during the trial and at one stage appeared to be sharing a private joke with a person in the public gallery.

When the then joint-owner of The Meeting Pint bar on Dorset St gave his evidence, Ms Williams shook her fist at him and became very agitated.

Mr Nicholas Maher told the court he had noticed Ms Williams in his bar with Mr Foley that day and said she was getting money off customers to play the jukebox.

"She was vomiting outside. She came back in and sat down. Mr Foley bought her a drink and she said she’d bring him outside the back for a f*** for buying her that and she touched him on the leg," Mr Maher told the court.

It is alleged that Mr Foley and Ms Williams left the pub together later that afternoon and went back to his flat on Nelson St.

"He let her into his flat and she went to sleep for an hour. Mr Foley went out to another pub and then returned to the flat. When he returned to the flat there was a row, during the course of the row the accused inflicted thirteen stab wounds to Mr Foley," said Mr Owens.

Mr Foley was stabbed in his left eye, shoulders, chest and groin, the court heard.

Giving evidence in the trial Garda Louise Clinton told the court that Ms Williams told her she was asleep when Mr Foley returned to the flat and woke her up.

"He asked me for sex, I said no and he said you can just f*** out of here. I jumped out of the bed, he was pushing me and I was pushing him, he was telling me to f*** off," Ms Williams said in a statement to Garda Clinton last year.

"He grabbed me by the neck and I had my back to the worktop. I stabbed him in the eye first, he let me go then I stabbed him again, with force, probably from the drink," she told gardaí.

When asked by gardaí why she poured boiling water over Mr Foley, Ms Williams replied "the kettle was on the worktop. I boiled it: I filled it and waited and I chucked it over him when he was in the chair. I just got carried away".

When asked what Mr Foley said to her at that time, Ms Williams stated that he just said "he was in so much pain".

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.

The court heard evidence from several of Mr Foley’s neighbours who alerted the emergency services after they found him slumped in his armchair bleeding profusely.

Mr Liam Crampsey told the court that he came down and found Mr Thomas Hanley bending over Mr Foley with Ms Williams screaming in the flat.

"Tom was saying ‘you’ve killed him’ and she says ‘yes I killed him and I’ll show you how ’," Mr Crampsey told the jury.

Ms Williams was remanded in custody. The trial continues before Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins and a jury of seven women and five men at the Central Criminal Court tomorrow.