Defendant lost her head 'completely'

A 25-year-old Welsh woman who stabbed a middle-aged Leitrim man thirteen times admitted today under cross-examination that she had lost her head “completely” because she was drunk at the time and didn’t know what she was doing.

“I had lost my head completely, I was drunk, didn’t know what I was doing.

"He started pushing me and I started pushing him back, we were pushing each other” said Ms Christina Williams.

Originally of Berwyn Carmel Road, Holywell, Flintshire in North Wales, Ms Williams, was giving evidence before Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins during her trial at the Central Criminal Court today.

She has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Andrew Foley (54) at his basement flat on Nelson St, Dublin on May 7 2002, only hours after meeting him for the first time.

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

He was separated from his wife but she was present in court today as were Mr Foley’s sister and daughter.

Under cross-examination by prosecution counsel Mr Alex Owens SC, Ms Williams told the jury that Mr Foley returned to his flat where he allowed her to sleep for a while and woke her up demanding sex.

She confirmed to Mr Owens that when she refused to have sex with him 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 told the court.

She denied that she told Garda detectives in a statement that when Mr Foley told her to get out of the flat she got out of bed and started pushing him around his flat.

“I can’t remember, 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.

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.

She said in a Garda statement that Mr Foley grabbed her by the throat and she was up against a kitchen worktop when she picked up a knife and stabbed him in the face.

“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 poured 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”.

She became agitated in the witness box when Mr Owens alleged she broke the blade of a large knife while stabbing Mr Foley.

“I can’t remember.

"I said that I probably did, not that I did” she said.

Ms Williams said she “couldn’ t remember” if she got another knife when the first knife broke on Mr Foley.

A total of three knives, one bent, one with a broken blade and a third knife were identified as evidence in court by Detective Garda Louise Clinton yesterday.

Ms Williams told her defence counsel Mr Gerard O’Brien SC that she grew up in North Wales, left Holywell High School at sixteen and worked in several factories packing baby wipes, toiletries and shampoo for “about four years”.

“I went to a psychiatric unit in Wales just for a couple of nights.

"It was a problem with drink and hearing voices in my head” she said.

She told Mr O’Brien that her problem with drink affected her work and she “used to go in smelling of drink” and eventually “got sacked”.

“My G.P was putting me into a counsellor but I never got that” she said.

She told the jury that her drink problem led to weight gain and acne and she suffered from “very bad” anxiety.

Ms Williams eldest and only sister, Ms Carla Williams, also gave evidence in court and described her sister’s drink problem as “very bad”.

“We took her to a psychiatric hospital near us.

"It was an open unit so we used to go and visit her and she’d be drunk” she said.

She said her sister had no other psychiatric illness and was a kind sensitive person at home.

“She’d do anything for my mam” she added.

The trial is expected to conclude tomorrow before a jury of seven women and five men.