Gardaí look for motive after brutal Dublin stabbing

Gardaí are working on finding a motive for a brutal stabbing in Dublin which left a woman critically ill in hospital.

Forty-nine-year-old mother-of-one Rose Kenny was attacked a short distance from her home at the School Street flats yesterday morning.

A 48-year-old man is being questioned at Kevin Street garda station. He is due to appear before Dublin District court this morning.

It is understood the man was charged eight years ago with a murder in Thailand. He was granted bail when friends and family posted €30,000. It is thought he fled to Cambodia. Garda sources said they thought he had only returned home in the last few months. It is not clear what relationship, if any, he had with the victim.

He handed himself in to Mountjoy garda station shortly after yesterday's attack. Gardaí were last night hopeful of bringing charges against him.

The Irish Examiner's Cormac O'Keeffe

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After the attack, she stumbled a short distance before she collapsed. A neighbour raised the alarm. She was taken the short distance to St James’s Hospital and underwent emergency surgery. She was described last night as being in a “critical but stable condition”.

Crime correspondent with the Daily Mirror Cathal MacMahon said a number of people came to Ms Kenny's aid after she was attacked.

"Luckily there were a number of maintenance workers in a flat a number of floors above hers who saw the incident and raced down to the scene to come to her aid," he said.

"They applied pressure to her wounds while ringing for paramedics."