Woman’s murder conviction for stab death overturned
Appeal court rules judge wrong not to allow provocation defence
would be fanciful for the defence of provocation to be triggered by the single phrase used in Garda interviews.
He added he found no rational basis to allow the defence to be considered.
However, Ms Biggs submitted there was a rational basis for allowing the jury to consider it and she outlined a number of evidential matters the jury had heard.
Farrell told a Garda Mr Mcquillan became violent with her. She also told her daughter the deceased attacked her.
In interviews, Farrell said just before the stabbing the deceased was strangling her, bit her and banged her head. Ms Biggs added this was evidence of an act or series of acts which may have lead her to have a sudden and temporary loss of self control.
Farrell also said her mind “went blank” when she grabbed the knife. Ms Biggs said her client didn’t use the phrase “I lost Wayne Mcquillan it” but her mind going blank was very close to suggesting she was not the master of her own mind.
She said Farrell had a history of alcohol-induced psychosis and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of alleged sexual abuse by a named individual from the age of seven - which she did not tell anyone about until she was 14.
With considerable hesitation, President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham, said manslaughter could not necessarily be said to be a perverse verdict.
Farrell was remanded in custody to appear before the Central Criminal Court at a future date. A WOMAN who stabbed her boyfriend to death had her murder conviction quashed yesterday.
Paula Farrell attacked hairdresser Wayne Mcquillan after a heavy New Year drinking session in 2014.
She was jailed for life in July 2015 but the Court of Appeal found the jury should have been allowed to consider whether she had been provoked by him.
Her conviction no longer stands but she was remanded in custody and will face a new trial.
Farrell, 44, of Rathmullen Park, Drogheda, Co Louth, denied she murdered the 30-year-old at her home.
The Central Criminal Court heard Farrell and Mr Mcquillan, who was 10 years her junior and lived with his parents, had been in a relationship for a year.
The court heard they regularly “overindulged” in drink and prosecutors said Farrell stabbed him four times with a kitchen knife.
A Central Criminal Court jury found Farrell guilty of murder after three-anda-half hours of deliberations and she was given the mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Patrick Mccarthy.
Farrell’s barrister Caroline Biggs argued there were only two viable defences available to Farrell, diminished responsibility and provocation.
She said the word provoked arose in Farrell’s Garda interviews, not necessarily as something to describe what happened but “in a general way”.
She told garda the deceased “sometimes provokes me”.
In his ruling, Judge Mccarthy said it