{"id":677416,"date":"2026-11-07T05:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/677416\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T05:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:18:09","slug":"woman-seen-striking-scarlett-faulkners-head-with-metal-bar-six-or-more-times-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/677416\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman seen striking Scarlett Faulkner\u2019s head with metal bar six or more times \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A woman has told a murder trial she was in \u201ctotal shock\u201d after seeing a female at the side of the road holding a metal bar and striking down with force on Scarlett Faulkner\u2019s head six or more times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Trudy Doyle told prosecution counsel Seoirse \u00d3 D\u00fanlaing the car windows were closed and music was playing but she still heard the impact of the \u201crapid\u201d blows. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She said she noticed other people standing looking at their mobile phones who were \u201ctotally not engaged\u201d and were not trying to help. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She said they seemed \u201cnonchalant\u201d, while she and her sister, Claire O\u2019Byrne, were so shocked they were unable to speak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">O\u2019Byrne told \u00d3 D\u00fanlaing she was driving the car with Doyle in the passenger seat as they pulled up to the Birdhill roundabout off the M7 motorway in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/tipperary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/tipperary\">Tipperary<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She said she initially thought she saw an animal on the ground but then saw Faulkner\u2019s feet, tracksuit bottoms and blonde hair. She saw another female striking \u201cdown directly to the head\u201d of Faulkner, who did not move or try to defend herself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She also saw two boys aged 11 or 12 who were watching from an embankment on the hard shoulder. She said she was \u201cquite shocked\u201d at the violence and that those involved had \u201cno regard for who was around or who was watching\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Gerard Coonan told \u00d3 D\u00fanlaing he was driving along when he noticed a van and a people carrier ahead of him \u201chopping off one another\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The vehicles stopped at the Birdhill roundabout and Coonan saw a man holding an axe with both hands and \u201cpretending to swipe\u201d at people, to frighten them away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A little further along, he saw three females who seemed to be \u201crunning away from the situation\u201d. One of the females jumped on to a car that was attempting to do a U-turn in the road. Coonan said he saw a space and \u201cjust got out of the situation as quickly as I could\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Advanced paramedic Frank Malone said he attended to Faulkner on the side of the road. She was lying on her back with blood on her face and forehead, he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Dr Shalen Maharaj, a trauma specialist at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), happened to be on the scene and told Malone that Faulkner was breathing but had a significant head injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The paramedic could hear Faulkner moaning but she did not communicate at any point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A number of people helped to lift Faulkner to a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance where Maharaj continued to treat her and administered pain relief medication.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">About 10 minutes later, a Coast Guard helicopter arrived and airlifted Faulkner to UHL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Edward O\u2019Mahony, prosecuting, read Maharaj\u2019s statement to the jury. Maharaj detailed his attempts to deal with Scarlett Faulkner\u2019s traumatic head injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said it was obvious that all injuries were pinpointed in one location to the lower back part of her head on the left side. He also concluded Faulkner was \u201clikely hit while walking away or on the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Scarlett Faulkner died on April 13th, three weeks after the assault at Birdhill, Co Tipperary, on March 21st.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A 17-year-old girl and a 41-year-old woman are on trial accused of her murder. In his opening speech earlier this week, \u00d3 D\u00fanlaing told the jury the motive for the attack was that Faulkner was in a relationship with the older accused\u2019s ex-husband. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The 17-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The older accused pleaded not guilty to murder. She also pleaded not guilty to burglary, entering a building as a trespasser and causing criminal damage at an address in Co Tipperary on March 20th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She pleaded not guilty to a further charge of burglary and committing assault causing harm at an address in Limerick on March 21st.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The trial continues before a jury of eight men and four women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman has told a murder trial she was in \u201ctotal shock\u201d after seeing a female at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42851,61,60,5006,43,9123,17229],"class_list":["post-677416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-coast-guard","tag-news","tag-tipperary","tag-university-hospital-limerick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677416","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=677416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}