Limerick woman praised for saving life of the man she loved from 'murderous knife attack'

A JUDGE praised the “courage” of a 23-year old County Limerick woman who, he said, stood in the way of a murderous knife attack by a teenager on someone she loved.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford said that the intervention of Ava Moloney to a then 16-year-old teenager carrying out a “frenzied knife” attack on Jeffrey Ryan, aged 25, at Francis Street, Kilrush, County Clare on June 13 last was “decisive”.

In her victim impact statement, Ms Moloney said that the teenager told Mr Ryan ‘you’re dead Jeffrey, you're dead’ before inflicting several knife wounds to Mr Ryan’s head and body.

Mr Ryan required 80 stitches to his wounds including one 15cm long slash wound to his head and ear that cut through to his skull.

After watching CCTV footage of the broad-daylight attack, Judge Comerford said that Mr Ryan was subject to “a very serious assault” and it is “good fortune that injuries were not even more terrible than they were”.

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Judge Comerford said that "one thing that jumped out at me was the courage of Ms Moloney who stood between the person approaching with the knife and Mr Ryan”.

He said: “Anyone watching the CCTV would be so impressed by the way she stood up against a murderous attack against someone she loved.”

In her victim impact statement, Ms Moloney described the moments when she did put herself at risk trying to protect Mr Ryan.

In the statement she said after seeing the teenager - now aged 17 - issue his threat to Mr Ryan and swing the knife “I said ‘if you are trying to get at him, you’ll have to get through me’ and he said ‘f*ck out of my way’ and he brushed past me".

She said: “This happened so quickly - I was in flight or fight mode and I got in fight mode and protected Jeffrey.”

Ms Moloney said that she jumped and grabbed the teenager in a headlock and as she did this she said she was attacked from behind by the mother of the teenage attacker.

Ms Moloney said that she was trying to get the teenager off Jeffrey “from nearly killing him in broad daylight”.

Ms Moloney said that the teenager swung at her with the knife.

She said: “I was full of emotions. I felt that I didn’t do enough. I felt hurt because the person I loved the most had been brutally attacked right in front of me.” 

After the attacker fled the scene, Ms Moloney went to care for Jeffrey and she said “I was waiting to lose the person I loved to go and take his last breath in front of me. All I could see was him fading in front of me ."

Ms Moloney told the court: "I am just glad that I was there to save a life. My main concern was Jeffrey and making sure to get him to safety and out of danger.”

Both Ms Moloney and Mr Ryan are originally from Croom in County Limerick.

The two are no longer a couple after Ms Moloney said that “we lost each other along the way” in trying to deal with the trauma and fall-out from the attack.

In his victim impact statement, Mr Ryan said that he had been savagely attacked by someone he did not know.

Mr Ryan said that the right hand side of his head “was sliced open catching the tip of my ear also”.

He said: “I will never know the full reason why this act of violence was done to me that day.”

Counsel for the State, Sarah Jane Comerford BL (instructed by State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey) said that Jeffrey Ryan suffered ‘considerable injuries’ from slash wounds to the head.

Ms Comerford said that the teenager made eight to 10 attempts to stab Mr Ryan "in a frenzied type attack".

Ms Comerford said that one of the stab wounds was close to Mr Ryan’s lung area.

The accused teenager’s mother drove her son to the scene of the assault but Garda Bríon Dolan said that he accepted that the woman did not know that her son was carrying the serrated kitchen knife.

Garda Dolan told the court: “I know the mother and I wouldn’t doubt for a second that she didn’t know that her son had the knife.”

Garda Dolan also accepted that the mother helped defuse the situation when taking the knife off her son at the scene of the assault.

The knife assault occurred after the attacker’s younger 14 year old brother told their mother that Mr Ryan had grabbed the boy by the throat earlier that day in Kilrush.

However, an independent teenage eye-witness told gardai that Mr Ryan didn’t physically touch the 14-year old.

The teenage accused has no previous convictions and has been on remand at Oberstown Detention facility in Dublin since June of last year and the court heard that his mother also has no previous convictions apart from a number of minor traffic offences.

Counsel for the teenager, Patrick Whyms BL (instructed by solicitor, Patrick Moylan) said that his client has never been in trouble before and is deeply remorseful for his actions that day.

Mr Whyms read out a letter to the court by the accused. In the letter, the teenager said that he wants the judge to know how much he regrets his actions. In the letter, the teenager said: "I am sorry for the hurt I have caused...I am a good person who knows right from wrong and I have no intention of getting into trouble or causing harm again."

In the case, the teenager has pleaded guilty to the assault causing harm of Jeffrey Ryan at Francis Street, Kilrush contrary to Section 3 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act on June 13 last.

The boy’s mother (38) has also pleaded guilty to assaulting Ava Moloney on June 13 at Francis Street, Kilrush contrary to Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.

Judge Comerford remanded the boy in continuing detention and the mother on continuing bail to April 28th for sentence.