Witnesses describe alleged roadside attack at Scarlett Faulkner murder trial

A witness in the trial of a woman and teenage girl accused of murdering Scarlett Faulkner has described seeing a female “bashing” the deceased’s head as she lay on the ground on the side of the road.

Ten witnesses gave evidence at the Central Criminal Court on Thursday of what they say they witnessed as they drove up to the Birdhill roundabout just off the M7 between Limerick city and Nenagh in Co Tipperary on the afternoon of Saturday, March 21st, last.

Ivan Kennedy told prosecution counsel Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing he was driving at Birdhill at about 5.20pm. As he approached the roundabout, he saw a woman trying to open the door of a car which was attempting to do a U-turn.

The car accelerated but because the woman was gripping the handle, she fell forward on her face, he said. Another female carrying a weapon went up to the woman on the ground and, the witness said, “started raining down blows on her head numerous times. She was bashing the lady’s head in on the ground.”

Kennedy said he thought the woman on the ground would die so he pulled on to the hard margin, intending to get out and help. However, his daughter begged him not to get out and told him there was a man using an axe nearby to bash a car that was stopped at the roundabout.

Kennedy said he rolled down his window and shouted “stop” at the top of his voice. The female with the weapon in her hand looked at him and stopped what she had been doing. Kennedy said he believed he had seen her deliver 10 or 11 blows and with each strike, the head of the woman on the ground moved involuntarily.

Dashcam footage from Kennedy’s car that showed the incident was played for the jury.

In his opening speech earlier this week, Ó Dúnlaing told the jury that the motive for the attack was that Scarlett Faulkner (28) was in a relationship with the older accused’s ex-husband. He said the older woman spent the previous day looking for Scarlett Faulknerand her new partner before spotting him driving his Transit van.

Adam Coleman was driving at Birdhill when he saw “a girl lying on the road who looked to be getting attacked by another girl”.

He described the attacker holding a long piece of wood or a stick above her head and “swinging at the head of the girl on the ground”. Coleman said she was striking aggressively, using “nearly as much force as she could possibly be using”.

He said the attacker looked to be 17 or 18 and there was a younger girl beside her who appeared to be recording what was happening on a mobile phone.

Michael Tobin told Ó Dúnlaing that he was driving a bus for an under-14 football team. He stopped the bus and opened the door but when he saw the wounds to the woman’s head, he drove on because he did not want the children on the bus to see.

He pulled in about 20m further down the road, took a fleece jacket and got off the bus. He learned from a man sitting nearby that the woman on the ground was named Scarlett. He tried to reassure her, using her name and telling her an ambulance was on the way.

She was still breathing but the injuries to her head were “severe”, he said. He could see blood and fragments of either bone or brain on the ground. Her eyes were swollen like two half golf balls and shut tight.

He used the fleece to staunch the wound, cleared blood from her nose and mouth and moved her into the recovery position. Sheila Ryan, a nurse, arrived and helped. She noticed the large head wound which was “bleeding profusely” from what seemed to be “targeted” strikes.

The 17-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.

Her 41-year-old co-accused pleaded not guilty to murdering Scarlett Faulkner and not guilty to burglary, entering a building as a trespasser and causing criminal damage at an address in Co Tipperary, on March 20th.

She pleaded not guilty to a third charge of burglary and committing assault causing harm, at an address in Limerick on March 21st.

The trial continues.