‘I tried to stop stab attack on boyfriend’

Ms Kelly told Paul Burns SC, prosecuting, that she and Mr Murphy had been a couple for about three months by the end of April 2015.

On the day that Mr Murphy died, Ms Kelly and Mr Murphy were at her home with Ailish Flood and Jodie Byrnes, and one of the accused, Mr Hogan.

Ms Flood and Ms Byrnes went to a local shop to get alcohol and came back with Druid’s Glen cider and beer. At that point Ms Kelly, who was not drinking, said the atmosphere in the house was “fine” but when Ms Byrnes told her Mr Hayes was on his way over, Ms Kelly told her he would not be allowed in.

She said that Mr Hayes knocked on the door and entered with a man she later found out was named Graham Kelly. The witness noticed Mr Hayes had a gun in his hand, but she did not know if it was real.

Ms Kelly told Mr Burns she was “very unhappy” about Mr Hayes being in the house.

“I told them to get out,” she said, but Mr Hayes said he wanted to speak to Ms Byrnes and he wanted to “sort out” a man named Wayne.

Ms Kelly had already given evidence that a neighbour named Wayne had arrived at the house the previous night and got into bed with Ms Byrnes while she slept.

Ms Kelly said Wayne had been was drunk and did not know what he was doing and left when told to go.

She said that, normally, Mr Murphy and Mr Hogan got on “like a house on fire” but when Mr Hayes arrived the atmosphere changed.

“They were slagging each other off,” she said, before she intervened and called Mr Hayes a “junkie”.

“Dylan headbutted me,” she said.

Then Mr Murphy told Mr Hayes to “cop on and have a bit of respect” before telling him to leave. She said Mr Hogan was “egging Dylan on”.

“I said to Shane: ‘I want them to leave,’ so he stood up to tell them to go once and for all but as far as I can remember that is when he got stabbed first.”

She said she tried to get in between Mr Murphy and the two men but she was pushed out of the way.

“They were both stabbing him,” she said.

She said Mr Hayes was using a screwdriver while Mr Hogan used a knife. She said the attack felt like a lifetime but probably only lasted about four or five minutes. By the end, Mr Murphy was on the floor covered in blood.

She wrapped him in a blanket but Mr Hayes and Mr Hogan came back and started stabbing him again.

“I tried to stop them,” she said.

“I tried kicking and screaming to try and stop them.”

She said she got stabbed in her hands and back.

As the attack happened, Ms Byrnes called the emergency services and when Mr Hogan and Mr Hayes left the scene they tried to instruct Ms Kelly on how to give CPR and to stem the flow of blood.

At one point, she said Mr Hogan came back again and said: “Ah, he’ll be all right.”

By the time the ambulance and gardaí arrived, “Shane was gone”, said Ms Kelly.

She will return to giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court tomorrow.