A woman has been found guilty of murdering her boyfriend by stabbing him four times with a large kitchen knife.
Paula Farrell of Rathmullen Park, Drogheda, Co. Louth killed him during an argument in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2014.
She wept uncontrollably when the jury delivered its guilty verdict after almost three and a half hours of deliberations.
She had denied murdering Wayne McQuillan after ringing in the New Year in 2014.
The couple had been seeing each other for around a year and they’d both been drinking that night when an argument broke out, during which she took a large kitchen knife and stabbed her boyfriend four times.
A number of people saw Mr. McQuillan at the door screaming for somebody to call an ambulance, before Ms. Farrell appeared and told them not to.
In her Victim Impact Statement, Wayne’s sister Audrey said the fact her brother was killed by someone who should have loved and protected him will haunt the McQuillan family forever.
Ms. Farrell then took to her feet in the dock as Mr. Justice Patrick McCarthy handed down the mandatory life sentence.
She simply nodded and was taken away by prison officers.
