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Scarlett Faulkner, the 28-year-old woman who died on 13 April 2026 following a severe assault at Birdhill, Co Tipperary, was "terrified" of her new boyfriend's estranged wife and believed the woman was "going to do something bad to her" in the hours before the fatal incident, the Central Criminal Court has heard. The testimony emerged on the second day of the murder trial before Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo and a jury of eight men and four women, with a 41-year-old woman and a now 17-year-old girl both standing trial. Neither accused can be named for legal reasons, as naming them would identify the teenage defendant.
Daily Dazzling Dawn understands that the prosecution's case alleges the older accused rammed her ex-husband's van off the road before the then 16-year-old girl beat Ms Faulkner to death with a metal pole. Opening the case earlier this week, prosecution counsel Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing said that although the evidence would show all injuries were inflicted by the teenage girl, both accused engaged in a joint enterprise to kill or cause serious harm, having "hunted down" the accused woman's former husband and Ms Faulkner with the intention of causing serious harm to both.
The now 17-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. Her co-accused has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Faulkner. She has 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, and to a further charge of burglary and committing assault causing harm at an address in Limerick on 21 March.
Witness Describes Faulkner's Fear at Limerick Apartment- A witness who cannot be named for legal reasons told the court that her then-partner was a close friend of the married man Ms Faulkner had begun seeing. She said Ms Faulkner and her new boyfriend called to her apartment in Limerick city on Saturday, 21 March — the same day Ms Faulkner received the injuries that led to her death. She told Mr Ó Dúnlaing that Ms Faulkner spoke about her new relationship and said she "knew" her boyfriend's ex-wife was "going to do something bad to her", adding that she was "terrified".
The witness said Ms Faulkner had planned to go with her sisters that day and did not want to go with her boyfriend, but then left with him because she was terrified. Shortly after the couple departed, a teenage boy and the accused woman arrived at the apartment, the court heard. The witness said the accused was "roaring", demanding to know where her ex-husband was, and struck the witness's partner with her fist, causing a cut to his lip. The teenager used a baseball bat to strike the same man, causing a cut to the back of his head.
During cross-examination, it was put to the witness that the accused fully accepted she was at the apartment shouting and demanding to know where her ex-husband was, and that she had told those present not to call gardaí — but she denied mentioning Ms Faulkner's name. It was also suggested that her evidence about the accused looking for Ms Faulkner was not mentioned in her statements to gardaí.
Drug Use and a 'Bull in a China Shop'- Chelsea Poneyi, who lived with her boyfriend Jeffery Buckley and the previous witness at the apartment, said she recalled Ms Faulkner and her new boyfriend were doing drugs in a bedroom on 21 March. Ms Poneyi said she believed they were smoking crack cocaine, but that she would always retreat to her own room when others in the apartment started taking drugs. From her room, she said she could hear "bickering" between Ms Faulkner and her boyfriend.
Ms Poneyi fell asleep but was awoken by the accused "barging" into her room demanding to know where her ex-husband was. She told the woman she did not know him and, when she got out of bed, she saw the younger male carrying a baseball bat. Ms Poneyi said she did not want to get involved in "whatever that situation was", so she closed the bedroom door. She said she could hear the accused asking the apartment owner where her ex-husband and Ms Faulkner were. As the accused was leaving, Ms Poneyi said she heard her saying that if any of them contacted gardaí, "they would be dead".
Marc Thompson SC, for the older accused, said his client takes no issue with most of Ms Poneyi's evidence, but has no memory of ever asking to know where Ms Faulkner was.
Mr Buckley told the court that the accused "barged open" the bedroom door wearing a pink and white dressing gown and began "roaring", demanding to know where her ex-husband was. He described her as being "like a bull in a China shop" and said that when she left the bedroom, he closed the door because he was afraid. He told gardaí the woman was "frantic" and said "I know you are hiding him".
Parents-in-Law Testify as Phone Footage Shown to Jury- The accused woman's mother-in-law told the court that on the same day she was at home in Tipperary when the accused arrived, demanding to know where her ex-husband was. She said: "She was angry, but maybe she had a right to be, like any wife would... I would be very violent too." She agreed that the accused had pointed to a mobile home belonging to her estranged husband and said: "That's the trailer he got for his crackhead prostitute." The accused also called the witness a "smelly old yoke" and tore up wedding photos which she left near the gate to the property.
The jury was shown mobile phone footage recorded by the accused of the same incident. In it, she can be heard saying: "I thought you said he was out here, where is he? There is the trailer he got for his crack head prostitute. You told my brother he was here." Addressing another family member, she said her husband "stayed here last night, did he stay here last night with the crack head prostitute? You smelly aul yoke." She added: "I promise ye, you will suffer like our Lord. You may pick out another plot for him, he's dead. He is nothing to me but a bag of dirt. Get the wedding photos that I ripped up in pieces and throw them on top of her."
Under cross-examination, the mother-in-law agreed that the accused was shouting and making threats, and at one point said: "He's dead, you may pick another plot for him," meaning they should get another burial plot for their son. She agreed the accused was angry at the thought of her husband cheating on her with Ms Faulkner and is the "type of person that she can get angry and shout and roar". However, the witness said she did not know anything about her son having a history of violence towards the accused, nor that her daughter-in-law often had to stay at a refuge. She said she had never met Ms Faulkner and always got on well with her daughter-in-law, who had never used such language towards her before.
The father-in-law told the court that his son and Ms Faulkner pulled up to the house shortly after the accused had left. He said he told his son to go because his wife was looking for him. "That's a mistake I regret for the rest of my life," he said. "I should have put her in my house and nothing would have happened to her. I'm ashamed of my life." He said he later warned his son that "they were out on the roads looking for him", and that he would regret to the day he died not taking Ms Faulkner out of the van and into his home. He agreed with Mr Thompson that during a phone call later that day the accused was angry, called him a "yellow, handicapped, cancery bastard" and a liar, and wanted to hurt him. The court also heard him say that if "people would sit down and talk none of this would have happened", and that he was ashamed and embarrassed when he looked at the Faulkner family, whom he had known for years and with whom he had never had any disagreement.
Passerby Recounts Scene Near Birdhill- Niamh Floyd told the court she and her partner were driving with family to a football match on 21 March when they saw a car and a van "tipping off each other" on the link road near Birdhill, close to where it is alleged the accused used her car to ram her ex-husband's van off the road. When the vehicles stopped, she saw a man emerge holding what could have been an axe or a sledgehammer, which he used to smash the back window of the car.
She told her partner, who was driving, to speed away and, as he was trying to turn, she saw a woman running towards their car. Ms Floyd told her partner to lock the doors and "speed up", adding: "I didn't know what she was running to our car for, what was going to happen next." She said the woman pulled out the wiper and stood in front of the car, preventing them from moving. When she moved to the passenger side, the witness's partner drove away while the woman "grabbed the mirror, she was trying to hold onto the car". Ms Floyd said the woman looked frightened rather than composed.
Once they had driven some distance down the road, Ms Floyd looked back and saw someone running towards the woman, possibly holding "some sort of weapon", but she looked away because she "didn't want to see what was going to happen after that". She said she and her partner called emergency services and said someone could be injured and an ambulance might be needed.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo and the jury.
