Trial of woman for murder of teenage mother draws to close
The closing stages have been reached at the Central Criminal Court in the trial of Kelly Noble, a young woman accused of murdering a teenage mother of two outside a supermarket in Co Meath last year.
Kelly Noble (aged 21), herself a mother of two, denies the murder of 19-year-old Emma McLoughlin, who was stabbed in the chest in Laytown, Co Meath on June 2 last year. The 21-year-old woman, from Seaview in Laytown, also denies a second charge of unlawfully producing a knife in the course of a dispute or a fight, in a manner likely to intimidate or inflict serious injury.
Making submissions for the prosecution, Mr Anthony Sammon SC pointed to the evidence of shop worker Deborah Cantwell (aged 19). She said she heard the accused refer to her argument with Ms McLoughlin and say she would “slice her up”.
Mr Sammon said that after making this direct declaration of her intention Ms Noble carried it out and should therefore be found guilty of murder.
However defence counsel Mr Michael O’Higgins SC told the jury of seven women and five men that Emma McLoughlin had been “spoiling for a fight” and on this particular night it happened to be with Kelly McLoughlin who was “in the shop doing what people do. Minding her own business and getting a few groceries.”
He said she was attacked two, probably three times by Emma McLoughlin and one of the attacks drew blood.
He said that citizens were entitled to a range of options to defend and protect themselves. If the jury found that Ms Noble’s actions in objective terms that night were reasonable then she was entitled to outright acquittal.
If her actions were not reasonable in objective terms, but they were believed wrongly by her to be so, then this was a case of manslaughter. He also said that if the slow burn of events that night led them to feel that Ms McLoughlin had experienced a total loss of control, then they could also convict her of manslaughter rather than murder.
The jury will rise to consider its verdict after hearing a closing summary from Mr Justice Barry White.
