Ex-husband tried to kill me, woman tells court

The ex-wife of a 39-year-old Dublin man accused of her attempted murder today told a jury at the Central Criminal Court that on March 29, 2000, her ex-husband was "trying to kill me".

David McDaid of Sillogue Avenue, Ballymun, Dublin, denies attempting to murder Mrs Dymphna McDaid, aged 35, at a horse-riding school at Surgalstown, Swords, Co Dublin on March 29, 2000.

The accused denies a second charge of assault causing serious harm and a third charge of engaging in conduct causing a substantial risk of death to Mrs McDaid.

Addressing the jury in his opening speech for the prosecution, Mr Ciaran O'Loughlin, SC, said that on March 29, 2000, "a man on a motor bike grabbed Mrs McDaid, struck her with his fists, dragged her into the stables where a rope was tied to her neck".

Mrs McDaid lost consciousness and when she came to, Mr O'Loughlin said today, "there was baling twine still connected to her neck and Mrs McDaid was still connected to a head collar for a horse."

Mr O'Loughlin told the jury that Mrs McDaid was "positive then and is positive now" that the man who attempted to murder her was her ex-husband, David McDaid.

"It was Mr McDaid's intention not only to cause serious harm to Mrs McDaid but it was his intention to kill," Mr O'Loughlin told the jury.

Giving evidence today, Mrs Dymphna McDaid told the jury that she married Mr McDaid in November 1995, having two children Sean and James, now aged eight and six.

The marriage, she said, ended in 1999.

On the day she was assaulted, four years ago today, Mrs McDaid told the jury she was working in the riding school she owns, Dymphna's Equestrian Centre in Surgalstown, Swords with her son James who was two and a half at the time.

"I was mucking out the stables. I heard a motorbike come into the yard, it was a noisy bike, a powerful one," she told the jury.

The rider, Mrs McDaid said, was dressed in black leather gear and had a brown envelope in his hand.

"I approached the bike from behind, the rider asked directions to Lees Cross nursing home." Mrs McDaid said: "I immediately recognised his voice," referring to her former husband Mr McDaid.

Mrs McDaid claims that the helmet of the rider's visor was up.

"I immediately turned to grab my son James," Mrs McDaid said as she started to cry in the witness box, briefly pausing to compose herself.

"David McDaid grabbed me around the two arms, he lifted me up and I started to scream", Mrs McDaid alleges.

"He punched me once or twice into the face. He then dropped me onto the floor and started to kick me into the head."

She claimed today that while her head was down, Mr McDaid allegedly boxed her in the face. "I didn't know where I was, I was being kicked into the face. He said "you f***ing c***."

Mrs McDaid told the jury she didn't know where her baby son James was during the attack: "I was trying to save myself."

"I felt tightening around my throat, it was getting tighter and tighter. I said to myself, 'I can't die because of the kids'."

Mrs McDaid today then told the jury of eight men and four women that she could feel herself being dragged.

"I felt myself being lifted up and dropped quickly." Mrs McDaid, it is alleged, then lost consciousness.

"When I woke up, I heard my son screaming. I don't know how long I was unconscious for. I knew I was in 'Jacko's' stable though.

"I struggled to get up. I couldn't see at all out of my right eye and I could barely see out of my left eye. I crawled out of the stable, I got to my feet and I tried to find James."

Mrs McDaid today told the jury that she believed that Mr McDaid had taken her son after the alleged attack.

A neighbour of Mrs McDaid, Mr Frank Barnwell, came across the mother of two as she tried to make it to her grandmother's house which was located at the riding school.

She said today at the Central Criminal Court that she told Mr Barnwell to "please get James, David is trying to kill me".

When asked by Mr Ciaran O'Loughlin, SC, prosecution counsel that after the assault she couldn't see out of either of her eyes, she said: "My face felt like three times its size, I have had one operation so far."

A head collar for a horse and a piece of rope were today shown to Mrs McDaid, who said that she didn't recognise either the rope or the head collar, saying: "No, it's not part of the equestrian centre's."

Mrs McDaid will continue giving evidence tomorrow at the Central Criminal Court before Mr Justice Paul Carney.