Teenager gave Faulkner 'some beating', murder trial hears

A teenager, who is on trial accused of the murder of Scarlett Faulkner last March, allegedly left a voice note for a friend describing how she "battered her with a bar" and "gave her some beating".

The 17-year-old admits manslaugher but denies a charge of murder.

A 41-year-old co-accused has also pleaded not guilty to murder.

The prosecution says both were engaged in a joint enterprise that led to the death of Ms Faulkner.

The 28-year-old was attacked on the roadside at Birdhill in Co Tipperary in March.

Neither accused can be named to protect the identity of the teenager.

On the 7th day of the trial, the jury was taken through messages, calls and voice notes that, the prosecution says, were extracted from the phones of both of the accused.

A voice note from the teenager's phone was played during which she appears to outline a dispute between the older woman and her husband over his relationship with Ms Faulkner.

In the voice note, the 17-year-old describes her co-accused "ramming" a van off the road before "the one got out of the van and she kept running.

Content warning: Graphic detail below

"I was running up the road and I battered her with the bar, her brains were open, her brains were lying on the floor.

"I got the bar and stuck it into her eyeball. I gave her some beating."

She also said the "young one in inside in the hospital, she is broke up, so I think I'm going to be getting charged with it and getting locked up. She can't breathe."

She said others present could not give the man a beating because he had a big axe, adding "we had a machete but it broke".

"They didn't get him but they are going to get him," she added. She also said that he had tried to hit her co-accused and had called her a whore like the older woman because she was "standing up" for her.

Earlier, the jury was taken through a series of messages from the teenager's phone, in the hours after the incident at Birdhill, in which she tells a friend she is "bored of her brains" and says she is "chilling out".

The person she is messaging later says "you're gonna go to jail girl. I'm so scared."

A reply from the teenager's phone says "ha ha ... be singing like Beyonce".

Sergeant Jennifer Skelly also took the jury though a series of messages, videos and voice notes alleged to be connected to the 41-year-old accused.

In one message to her father-in-law, she says "Tel the fella, the crackhead, my son said he is going to do life in jail. He can take the prostitute to another country because his life is over here. I'll cut her throat and ye worse knowing all about it."

Another messages says "tell her sister she is going to die when I get my hands on her".

The jury also heard a series of voice notes from the 41-year-old describing to a friend how she "never cheated on the low-life scumbag" and how she wanted to burn down a caravan.

"All her stuff is there but she won't be sleeping in it now," she said.

The jury was also shown footage taken from the accused woman's phone of a caravan being damaged with an axe.

Ms Faulkner died on 13 April last after the incident at Birdhill on 21 March.

The 17-year-old accused, who cannot be identified because she is a minor, has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.

Her 41-year-old co-accused also denies 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 20 March.

She denies a third charge of burglary, and committing assault causing harm, at an address in Limerick on 21 March.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo and a jury at the Central Criminal Court.