A murder accused told Police “I can’t believe he is gone” when she was told her boyfriend had died from a knife wound he suffered during an altercation with her.
Norma Phillips (46), a Zimbabwean national with an address on the Phibsboro Road, Phibsboro, Dublin 7 has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 36-year-old Stefan Neanu on April 12, 2015 at her former home on the Phibsboro Road.
At her trial today, Detective Garda Martin McInerney told prosecuting counsel Denis Vaughan Buckley SC that he interviewed Ms Phillips at Mountjoy garda station on April 12, 2015. During that interview, he said that Ms Phillips told him that Mr Neanu had waved a knife at her and that he got stabbed when she pushed the knife away.
Det Gda McInerney said he was the one who broke the news to her that Mr Neanu had died. She became “visibly upset”, he said. He tried to calm her down and gave her a cup of tea and a cigarette.
Sergeant Nuala Bruce told defending counsel Sean Gillane SC that she was the sergeant in charge at the time. “I went to Norma Phillips in an effort to comfort her as she was quite upset,” she said.
During the interview that followed, Det Gda McInerney said gardai asked Ms Phillips why, if she cared so much for Mr Neanu, she had admitted being in a relationship with another man. She told them: “That was an on-and-off relationship. I cared more for Stefan. I was not in love with him but I did care for him. He meant a lot to me.”
She said his death would haunt her for the rest of her life and that she wishes he was still alive. She added: “I am in shock, I can’t believe he is gone.”
She identified the knife that killed Mr Neanu, telling gardai that the deceased was holding the knife and that she pushed it away from her. She said they had been arguing but she could not remember what the argument was about.
Interviewing gardai asked her if she had held the knife at any point and she said “no”. They said that her description of what happened was “not possible” and she replied: “It is possible. That is what happened.”
State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy today told the jury that she saw a video of Ms Phillips demonstrating how Mr Neanu pointed the knife at her before she pushed it away.
Professor Cassidy said the fatal knife wound, which was about 9cm deep and went through Mr Neanu’s ribs and left lung and into his heart, would have required “some moderate force”.
She agreed with Mr Gillane that the injury could have been inflicted in the way Ms Phillips demonstrated using the knife that she identified. The knife, a kitchen carving knife, is solid steel and has a sharp blade that is 19cm long.
The prosecution finished its evidence today and Justice Margaret Heneghan asked the jury of seven women and four men to return tomorrow. She told them not to discuss the case with anyone.
