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Scarlett Faulkner, the 28-year-old woman who died on 13 April 2026 following a severe assault near 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. Witnesses also described shouting at her attacker to stop during the assault, with dashcam footage capturing the desperate pleas of passersby.
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. A 41-year-old woman and a now 17-year-old girl are both standing trial, with neither accused able to be named for legal reasons as naming them would identify the teenage defendant. Daily Dazzling Dawn understands 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.
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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.
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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.
The jury was shown video footage of the attack on Ms Faulkner at Birdhill on 21 March, during which she suffered fatal injuries. Ivan Kennedy described how he was travelling near Birdhill with his daughter when he saw a woman trying to hold on to the door of a car which was driving away from her. He said the woman fell forward on her face and another woman came up to her with a weapon and began "raining down blows on her head numerous times" and "bashing" her.
He said when he got parallel to the women he pulled in with the intention of getting out of the car to help but his daughter begged him not to because she could see a man further up the road with an axe. He said, instead, he rolled down his window and "roared at the top of my voice 'stop, stop'". He said the person hitting the woman on the ground stopped when he shouted at her. "The girl on the ground was lifeless, but I had watched the bashing, each blow, there must have been ten or 11 of them."
Dash-cam footage from his car was played to the jury during which Mr Kennedy's daughter can be heard pleading "Dad please, don't get involved, please Dad just keep driving". Mr Kennedy is heard saying "She is going to kill her. Stop, stop. God almighty". He then tells his daughter to ring gardaí. On cross examination he agreed with defence counsel Coleman Cody, who is representing the 17-year-old on trial, that she had stopped when he shouted at her.
Róisín Duggan said she came on the scene and saw a woman with something really long in her hand hitting a girl on the ground in a "poking" motion. She said she stopped and shouted "stop f***ing hitting her" and blew her car horn. She said the women just looked at her and stopped what they were doing.
Michael Tobin, who was driving a schoolboy football team, said he pulled up beside the woman on the ground but had to close the door and drive further up so the children on the bus would not see the badly injured woman. He said he left his bus and knelt down beside her to see if there was anything he could do. "The injuries to her head were very severe, there was blood and possibly bone fragments or brain fragments I could not be sure but it was very severe." He said he kept speaking to her telling her to keep with us and that the ambulance was coming.
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 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.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo and the jury.
