DEATH OF A TEEN KILLER
WOMAN JAILED FOR NOTORIOUS SOUTH WALES KILLING AT THE AGE OF 17 STARTED NEW LIFE BEFORE DESCENT INTO ALCOHOLISM, INQUEST TOLD
A WOMAN who brutally murdered a frail pensioner in Wales when she was a teenager died an alcoholic with two children in Cambridgeshire.
Christina Molloy and her friend Maria Rossi were just 17 years old when they killed 70-year-old Edna Phillips at her home on the Penywaun estate, near Aberdare, in July 1992.
A court later heard the accomplices were drunk and high on drugs when they strangled the half-blind pensioner with a dog chain, slashed her face with a knife, and left broken eggs over her body.
Mrs Phillips, who lived alone with her dog Chum, had raised concerns about abuse she was receiving from the teenagers after she made complaints about loud music coming from Rossi’s house next door.
Both Molloy and Rossi pleaded guilty to murder and were given indefinite sentences at her majesty’s pleasure with a minimum term of 15 years at Cardiff Crown Court in 1993.
The tariff on Molloy’s sentence was reduced to 12 years in 2002.
On May 1, 2017, Molloy was found dead at her home in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, at the age of 42.
An inquest into her death, held at Lawrence Court in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, yesterday revealed Molloy had changed her name to Martina O’Toole and was living in Fenstanton with her two children.
A statement given by her partner Richard Nicholson was read to the court by assistant coroner Lorna Skinner.
Mr Nicholson told Cambridgeshire Police he had met Ms O’Toole at the Pig and Falcon pub in St Neots about eight and a half years before her death.
Shortly after they met she moved to Bell Lane, Fenstanton, where she lived with a child she had with a former partner.
She and Mr Nicholson had another child together.
“My relationship with Martina has been a very good one,” Mr Nicholson said.
“We have had, as with every relationship, our disagreements. We mainly argued when drinking got to the excessive stages. Martina has developed a problem with alcohol over the time I have known her.
“I didn’t really notice when she lived in St Neots but since living in Fenstanton she said she felt quite isolated.”
Mr Nicholson said he was aware Ms O’Toole suffered with depression and anxiety and used alcohol to make herself feel better.
She had also attempted to take her own life about three years before she died but called the ambulance herself and was taken to hospital where she recovered. “I know that in the time during the run-up to her conviction for murder when she was 17 she had been moved from London, where she lived, to Wales,” he said.
“I think this may have triggered those feelings in her. I know that she said she had a problem with drugs and alcohol before the conviction but since I have been with her I have never seen her take any drugs apart from cocodamol which she took for her back pain.”
Mr Nicholson said his partner had attended a support group for her drinking and she had read a book about how to give up alcohol.
But in the days leading up to her death he said he suspected she had been drinking.
Ms O’Toole was also complaining of a cough and was vomiting intermittently for around two days before she died, he said.
On the morning Ms O’Toole died Mr Nicholson said he was sleeping downstairs at the house.
He said he checked on her at about 1.30am and she asked if she could have a glass of milk and ice, which he brought to
her. “Her speech was still very slurred but she said she promises this is the last time,” he said.
“I replied ‘I have heard it all before’ and went back downstairs.”
At about 7.30am Mr Nicholson went back upstairs to the bedroom where he found his partner on the floor with her head propped up against the bedroom cabinet.
Her chin was resting against her chest and she was blue and purple in colour.
He said he called the emergency services and attempted chest compressions.
An ambulance worker declared Ms O’Toole dead at 8.31am on May 1, 2017.
Kay Davies of the local Mind mental health charity said Ms O’Toole had referred herself to their services for support with anxiety and depression earlier that year.
She said Ms O’Toole attended a few appointments and admitted she had served time in prison for murder.
Coroner Ms Skinner summarised a report by Dr Benjamin Swift, who carried out a post-mortem examination on Ms O’Toole’s body.
Dr Swift said toxicology testing revealed she had an alcohol concentration of less than 10mg per 100ml in both her blood and vitreous humor at the time of her death.
There were no drugs detected in her stomach contents or blood.
“In conclusion the cause of Martina O’Toole’s death has not been established though, having excluded a traumatic or toxicological cause, it is more likely than not to have occurred through natural causes,” Dr Swift said.
“It is known that individuals with a history of alcoholism have an increased risk of sudden unexpected death.”
Ms Skinner accepted the cause of death given by the pathologist as unascertained and concluded Ms O’Toole died of natural causes.
After the hearing a neighbour who preferred not to be named said: “I have nothing bad to say about her.
“She was quite a quiet, gentle person. Very polite. Just generally a nice sort of lady but we were obviously concerned about her drinking.
“We didn’t know about what she had done until after she died.
“That one error and she was never able to get over it. Whether any of us could have helped her I don’t know.”
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