Murdered woman ‘argued with accused’

A teenage mother-of-two, who was stabbed to death outside a supermarket, was seen arguing with the woman accused of her murder and repeatedly asked her why she had kicked her in the stomach when she was pregnant with her three-year-old son, a witness has told a jury at the Central Criminal Court today.

Shopkeeper Loren Boshell was giving evidence on day one of the trial of Kelly Noble (aged 21) from Seaview in Laytown, who denies the murder of 19-year-old Emma McLoughlin.

Ms McLoughlin was stabbed to death outside Pat’s supermarket in Laytown, Co Meath on June 2 last year.

Ms Noble also denies a second charge of unlawfully producing a knife in the course of a dispute or a fight, in a manner likely to intimidate or inflict serious injury.

Mr Boshell told Mr Anthony Sammon SC, prosecuting, that he was working at Pat’s supermarket at around 9.10pm on June 2 when he saw the accused come into the shop with her young son, aged two or three in a buggy.

Later he said he saw the deceased Emma McLoughlin enter the shop and an argument seemed to flair up between the two women.

“Emma was saying to Kelly ‘Why did you kick me in the stomach when I was pregnant?’,” he said.

He said it was a “one line” argument and the allegation was repeated.

His brother William was trying to intervene between the two women. He said Ms Noble seemed to be quite calm whilst Ms McLoughlin was “irritable” and he thought she had been drinking.

He said the situation seemed to calm down but he noticed Ms Noble had a bleeding nose and he gave her some tissue.

He said Ms McLoughlin had “swung her arm out and clipped her on the face”.

Ms McLouglin then went outside whilst Ms Noble remained in the shop. The witness agreed with defence counsel Mr Michael O’Higgins SC that when Ms Noble entered the shop she was like any other mother with a buggy, getting her groceries and going about her business when “she came under a sustained verbal onslaught from Emma McLoughlin”.

He also agreed Ms McLoughlin had punched Ms Noble in the face, but when asked if that was the deceased’s style, he replied: “That’s not for me to say.”

When asked if he knew that Ms McLoughlin and her older boyfriend had an “unenviable reputation” and were “notorious” to those around the local area, the witness replied: “I would know a portion of that.”

His brother William, who also gave evidence, described Ms McLoughlin as being on a bit of a high when she questioned Ms Noble in the supermarket.

He said: “She wanted an answer and she was hell bent on getting it.”

He said he told the women to forget about it as the alleged attack on the pregnant Ms McLoughlin had happened three years previously.

He told Mr O’Higgins that when he left the shop that evening, he thought the row had quietened down, but agreed Ms Noble had been attacked.

Asked if Ms McLoughlin frequently attacked people, he replied: “She had her moments, yes.”

He agreed that he had told gardaí in a statement that the argument was continuing outside the nearby post office when he drove away that night.

The deceased’s younger sister Shona McLoughlin, who was at the scene and was called to give evidence yesterday, became too upset and left the courtroom in tears.

Her friend Ann Duffy said she had been drinking with the two sisters at the Seafields and at the beach in Laytown before the attack took place.

She said she drank “a nagin of vodka and a few bottles of WKD” and became more drunk than the others who were drinking cans of Budweiser and Bulmers and maybe a little bit of vodka also.

Outside the supermarket she saw Ms Noble and Ms McLoughlin having a verbal argument and said she and Shona were telling Emma to leave.

She said: “I turned around to my right and Emma was lying on her belly and we were all screaming and I don’t know where Kelly went.”

She said she had not seen the attack until Emma McLoughlin fell.

She added: “I seen blood everywhere, it was just coming, underneath her.”

Opening the case for the prosecution yesterday, Mr Sammon said it was the State’s case that Ms Noble had carried out the fatal attack on Ms McLoughlin.

He told the jury of seven women and five men they would hear evidence that Emma McLoughlin had died from a penetrating wound to the chest.

He added: “The evidence will tell you that the person who did that stabbing was Kelly Noble. Nobody is in a position to say they directly saw Kelly Noble but there is enough evidence to be satisfied that she did.”

The trial continues today tomorrow before Mr Justice Barry White and the jury.