Suspect found guilty of lesser offence in murder trial

A 21-year-old woman on trial for murder has been convicted by a jury of producing a knife during a confrontation outside a supermarket, which resulted in a teenage mother-of-two being stabbed to death.

However the jury of seven women and five men is still deliberating on a charge of murder against the accused Kelly Noble.

Noble, herself a mother of two, from Seaview in Laytown, County Meath, denies the murder of Emma McLoughlin (aged 19) who was stabbed in the chest outside Pat’ s supermarket in Ninch in Laytown.

Ahead of her trial which has lasted just over two weeks at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, Noble had also denied the 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 but was convicted shortly before lunchtime today.

The jury which rose to consider its verdict yesterday has now been deliberating for over four hours.