A grandmother was \u201cstruck violently\u201d with a seven-inch knife while walking through Dublin city centre following a Christmas lights event. <\/p>\n
Gretta McCullough said in her victim impact statement, which was read to the court by a garda, that the impact of the knife felt like a brick being smashed into the back of her head. The court heard it \u201cpassed through\u201d the back of her head.<\/p>\n
The victim described the \u201crandom\u201d attack as \u201csilent, sudden and terrifying\u201d. \u201cI did not see my attacker. I did not provoke the attack. I was simply walking with my husband,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Still in shock and \u201cnot fully comprehending the severity\u201d of her injuries, she said she removed the knife herself and handed it to her husband, telling him she had been stabbed. <\/p>\n
She said the defendant had initially attempted to retrieve the knife, which was \u201cfirmly embedded\u201d in her head but then ran away. <\/p>\n
The woman said in her statement that the violent attack has \u201cpermanently altered my sense of safety, my independence\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court heard Darragh Quigley, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had ceased to comply with his medication regime at the time of the offence, told garda\u00ed in interviews that he had gone into town with a knife \u201cwith a plan of hunting someone and had to follow through\u201d. He told officers it was \u201cpurely random\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last month, Quigley (26) of Carndonagh Road, Donaghmede, north Dublin, pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Gretta McCullough (64) on November 16th, 2023, at Chatham Row, Dublin 2.<\/p>\n
At a sentence hearing on Tuesday, Garda \u00c1ine Hogan told John Griffin, prosecuting, that Quigley was seen following Ms McCullough and her husband from the Powerscourt Centre on to Chatham Row at about 9.45pm on November 16th. <\/p>\n
Garda Hogan said Quigley had lunged at Ms McCullough in \u201ca forceful swinging motion\u201d and put a seven-inch knife through the back of her head, which entered on the left-hand side and exited on the right hand-side of the neck. The officer said the defendant had fled the scene and was arrested the following day.<\/p>\n
Garda Hogan told the court that Ms McCullough is originally from Northern Ireland and that she and her husband had moved to Australia when she was 20 years of age. The officer said the victim returned to Ireland six months before this incident, settling in Westport and had come to Dublin city centre to see the Christmas lights being turned on. <\/p>\n
Mr Griffin noted that the victim had put her hands up to the back of her head, felt the handle of the knife sticking out on the left hand side and pulled it out. <\/p>\n
Garda Hogan said the victim was brought to St James\u2019s Hospital, where she had the \u201csuperficial\u201d incised wound \u2013 which was 1cm in depth. <\/p>\n
Counsel said Ms McCullough didn\u2019t require any inpatient treatment and made a full recovery. <\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed launched an investigation and the defendant was arrested at his father\u2019s house and brought to Pearse Street Garda Station. <\/p>\n
Quigley told garda\u00ed he had assaulted somebody but that it was random\u201d. He said he had put the kitchen knife, which belonged to his father, in his pocket and gone into town. <\/p>\n
Quigley told officers he had spent the last few months watching pornography and \u201crotting away\u201d. He said he felt genuine remorse for what he had done. <\/p>\n
Quigley, the court heard, has no previous convictions but had come to Garda attention on a number of occasions for mental health issues. <\/p>\n
In her statement, Ms McCullough said the unprovoked and random nature of the attack has fundamentally damaged her \u201csense of personal security\u201d. <\/p>\n
She said the incident had shattered \u201cwhat should have been a joyful chapter of my life, returning home to Ireland after many years abroad. Instead of memories of celebration and belonging, that evening is now defined by violence and trauma\u201d. <\/p>\n
Mr Justice Paul Burns called the incident \u201ca truly shocking and extremely serious offence\u201d. He remanded Quigley in custodyuntil January 19th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A grandmother was \u201cstruck violently\u201d with a seven-inch knife while walking through Dublin city centre following a Christmas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42851,104758,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-196598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-chatham-row","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}