Neighbour of strangled pregnant woman heard 'wailing'

The neighbour of a pregnant mother-of-four strangled to death in her home heard "wailing" coming from her house on the night of the killing, a murder trial has heard.

Shauna Mellon was giving evidence today to the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on the fourth day of the trial of a 39-year-old man charged with murdering the mother of his unborn son.

Jean Teresa Quigley (aged 30) was found dead by her mother in her home in Cornshell Fields Derry on Saturday July 26, 2008.

Stephen Cahoon of Harvey Street, Derry admits killing his ex-girlfriend but has pleaded not guilty to her murder. He went missing after her killing but was arrested in Donegal 10 days later.

Ms Mellon testified that Ms Quigley’s home was one of a number of houses that backed onto her house in Cornshell Fields. She explained that her daughter was ill at the time and that she got up to tend to her at 1am and 3am that Saturday.

She recalled that she had a cigarette in her kitchen on one of these occasions. It was a muggy night and her kitchen window was open, she said, and she heard a noise coming from the victim’s home.

“I heard what was like a wailing type of noise, as if someone had been told that someone had passed away,” she explained. “Shouting, not crying,” she added.

She said that this voice was female, but that she also heard a male voice, which was quite calm and controlled.

“I was in the kitchen at least 10 minutes and the noise was continuing when I returned to the bedroom, so it lasted at least 10 minutes,” she recalled.

“It upset me because I didn’t know what the noise was. It wasn’t like a normal argument,” she said. “It stayed with me, because the minute I was told what happened, it immediately came to mind.”

She said that she had no doubt in her mind that the noise she heard emanated from Ms Quigley’s home.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of seven women and five men.