A Laois man has been jailed for life for murdering his ex-girlfriend in Carlow almost two years ago.
Gordon Molloy (24) stabbed Ciara Ni Chathmhaoil (Campbell) (22) because she had met another man, the court heard during the trial.
The victim’s body was found lying naked in the bath of her home. Molloy told gardai that he had “lost it.”
It took the jury at the Central Criminal Court four hours and fifty minutes to reach its unanimous verdict, finding Molloy, of Ballinakill, Ballickmoyler, Co Laois guilty of murdering Ms Ni Chathmhaoil at her home in Ardmore Gardens, Carlow, Co. Carlow on November 12th, 2007.
It was the prosecution’s case that Ms Ni Chathmhaoil’s death was the “culmination of drink and jealousy”.
The defence argued during the trial that Molloy was suffering from a borderline personality disorder, which would have substantially diminished his responsibility for the killing.
Molloy and Ms Ni Chathmhaoil had met two years prior to her death.
When they broke up, five weeks prior to her death, Molloy said he would kill her if he found out she was seeing anyone else, the court heard.
The court also heard that Molloy had been drinking heavily the day before the murder and had found out that evening that Ms Ni Chathmhaoil had met another man.
During the trial, the court heard that Molloy went to Ms Ni Chathmhaoil’s house after having been drinking in Carlow.
Ms Ni Chathmhaoil returned home at approximately 8am, accompanied by her four-year-old son.
Molloy told gardai: “I asked her, ‘Do you not want to be with me anymore?’ She said, ‘I don’t know’.”
He told the gardai that Ms Ni Chathmhaoil asked him to leave and started “pushing” him out the door.
“Then I picked up the knife and stabbed her. And then she screamed. I didn’t know what to do. I stabbed her again lots of times.”
The court heard that Molloy then stabbed himself in the neck and cut his throat.
Molloy dragged Ms Ni Chathmhaoil’s body upstairs and put her in the bath. Following this, he cut his wrists with a razorblade and crawled out of the bathroom.
When he awoke, he called an ambulance.
Molloy was found by the ambulance crew and gardai standing on the stairs, undressed from the waist up and covered in blood.
He told gardai that he “was fighting Ciara Campbell this morning. She was with some lad the other night. I stabbed her in the sitting-room.
“I was drinking vodka all night. I lost it and I stabbed her in the side. She started screaming. I totally lost it.”
The jury also saw photos that had been taken at the scene of the murder, one of which showed the words “I loved her but she cheated” written in blood on the living-room door.
Mr Justice Peter Charleton sentenced Molloy to life in prison.
Speaking outside the Four Courts in Dublin after the verdict, Micheal Glynn, father of the deceased, said: “It has been a nightmare journey. And we are relieved some of that journey is over.”
He said he and his wife could not have coped without the support of friends or family.
“This evil monster has shown no remorse to our family. Society is very fortunate that he has been removed from its midst.”
Patricia Campbell said her daughter had “just started college” because she was “trying to make life better for herself and her son”, who was four years old at the time of the murder.