'I hope you f*****g die', woman told victim as she stabbed her in head with broken bottle
A Limerick woman who repeatedly stabbed a Clare woman in the head with a broken bottle looked into her victim's eyes and told her: "I hope you f*****g die",
Susan McCarthy, now 22 (she was 21 at the time of the attack), said she "lost it" and attacked Leanne Delaney, ( then also 21), after claiming she heard the victim and a man arguing in an apartment on Parnell Street, in the early hours of October 25, 2015.
McCarthy had consumed a cocktail of anti-depressants and alcohol, the court heard.
At 2.30am in the morning in question, McCarthy followed Ms Delaney out of the apartment block on Parnell Street, before smashing a beer bottle, and lunging at her victim with the sharp glass.
After knocking Ms Delaney to the ground, McCarthy "sat on top of her" and stabbed and punched her about the head and body, said John O'Sullivan, senior state prosecuting counsel.
"It was a frenzied attack. Ms Delaney was passing in and out of consciousness," he continued.
Witnesses told gardaí they heard McCarthy shout at Ms Delaney "I hope you f*****g die" as she repeatedly jabbed her with the broken bottle.
At one point McCarthy stepped back, leaving Ms Delaney on the ground in a pool of blood. She returned moments later, stabbing her again and again. The court heard McCarthy also delivered several kicks to Ms Delaney as she lay unconscious on the ground.
Gardaí, alerted by a taxi driver, found Ms Delaney "unconscious" and with "blood pouring out of her" on a footpath, outside Limerick Animal Welfare's premises.
Witnesses said that following the brutal attack, they heard McCarthy say, "I hope she fuc**** dies, she's only a fuc**** junkie". McCarthy then told Ms Delaney, "you won't be doing that again".
McCarthy was still at the scene when gardaí arrived. She told officers: "I bottled her...the head, the body, I don't know." When asked if she was sorry for what she had done, she told gardai: "No".
The horrific attack was captured on a number of CCTV cameras in the area.
Mr O'Sullivan, prosecuting, said McCarthy later told gardaí she "intended on giving (Ms Delaney) a fair go, but 'kept on going'.
McCarthy told gardaí: "I got her into the side of the stomach too." When asked if she was aware she had seriously injured Ms Delaney, McCarthy told gardaí: "Yeah, I knew that, but I kept going. If only for (male acquaintance) getting in the way, I would have kept going until she was dead."
Mr O'Sullivan said "divine providence" may have prevented Ms Delaney, from Shannon, suffering "consequences more horrific".
"It is surprising how well she has recovered," agreed Detective Garda Gary Laide, Henry Street garda station.
Ms Delaney declined to give a victim impact statement. However, gardaí said the attack had been "traumatic" for the victim. Doc Gda Laide described how one of Ms Delaney's stab wounds "protruded through her ribs and into her right lung".
Mr O'Sullivan said the victim had made a "miraculous recovery". As well as sustaining a punctured lung, she suffered cuts, bruising, and light scarring to her face and torso.
McCarthy, who is unemployed, has previous convictions for engaging in abusive, insulting or threatening behaviour, the court heard. She initially told gardaí she saw Ms Delaney holding "a big knife" but this was accepted by her defence as being a "bogus story".
"Whatever her reasoning was, she lost control. It was a disgraceful," Mark Nicholas, defending, said.
He told the court a psychiatric evaluation on McCarthy found that she "may be suffering from a personality disorder".
Judge Tom O'Donnell will pass sentence on Thursday.
