Gardaí investigating the fatal stabbing of Sebastian Creane and Shane Clancy in the early hours of Sunday morning believe Mr Clancy brought a knife to Mr Creane’s house in Bray, Co Wicklow, and used it to kill the student.
After stabbing Mr Creane (22), Mr Clancy then used the knife to stab Mr Creane’s girlfriend, Jennifer Hannigan, gardaí believe.
The blade lodged in Ms Hannigan’s back, leaving the young woman from Dalkey, south Dublin, seriously injured. Ms Hannigan had previously dated Mr Clancy.
Mr Clancy (22), who lived in rented accommodation in Dalkey, then grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Sebastian Creane’s brother, Dylan (28), eight times, after he tried to go to his brother’s aid in their family home at Cuala Grove.
Dylan Creane suffered a punctured lung but, like Ms Hannigan, is expected to recover. After carrying out the stabbings, Mr Clancy went to the back garden of the Creane house where his body was later found.
Postmortems concluded that Sebastian Creane died from a single stab wound to the chest and that Mr Clancy also died from a fatal wound to the chest.
Detectives are exploring the possibility that Mr Clancy dropped Sebastian Creane home after a night out and then waited outside the Creane home until Ms Hannigan arrived, before going into the house and stabbing them. Gardaí believe the crime was motivated by jealousy.
Gardaí say when Ms Hannigan is well enough to be fully interviewed her evidence will be vital in establishing the full facts.
Mr Clancy was a student of Middle Eastern studies at Trinity College, Dublin. Mr Creane, like Ms Hannigan, was a student at Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
Mr Creane and Mr Clancy were known to each other but they were not friends. Mr Creane, described by friends as arty and a music lover, had just returned from a month in Spain and Morocco.
His parents returned from a holiday in Penzance, England, immediately after they heard of Sunday’s attack. Mr Creane had gone out with two friends, all former students at St Gerard’s in Bray, to the Eagle House pub in Sandycove on Saturday night. They met a school friend who was in the company of four young women and Mr Clancy.
The group moved to the Queen’s pub in Dalkey and then seven of them made their way to the Vico club in Dalkey. Friends of Mr Creane dismissed reports in some media that the night was “drink fuelled”.
After the club, Mr Clancy, who had not been drinking, offered to drive Mr Creane and his two friends to their homes in Bray. The two friends with whom Mr Creane had started the night got out of Mr Clancy’s car at their house. Mr Clancy and Mr Creane then drove to the Creane family home at Cuala Grove, arriving just before 3.30am.
The sequence of events thereafter is unclear.
Gardaí are exploring if Mr Clancy dropped Mr Creane home, then waited outside the house for Ms Hannigan to arrive before going into the house uninvited and attacking the couple at about 4.30am.