A Tralee woman on trial for allegedly stabbing a man with a knife in her home originally told gardaí it may have happened by accident.
43-year-old Noreen Flannery of Cois Coille, Tralee, denies assaulting William O’Donoghue, causing him harm, in March last year.
She also denies producing a knife during the course of the alleged incident.
Garda John Griffin told the Tralee Circuit Court trial that he arrived at the scene at Cois Coille and Mr O’Donoghue was hobbling out towards him.
Garda Griffin said Mr O’Donoghue then pulled down his pants, revealing a fresh stab wound on his upper left thigh; he alleged he had been stabbed by Ms Flannery.
Garda Griffin then spoke to Ms Flannery in the house, and he said she was acting as sweet as pie, although heavily intoxicated and with smells of alcohol and cannabis.
Garda Griffin said he ended up using handcuffs after giving her every opportunity to come voluntarily to the station with him.
Ms Flannery’s original garda interview, conducted the next morning, was also read out in court.
During this, she said Mr O’Donoghue was allowed to call to her house, which she shared with her boyfriend Joe O’Shea, for 30 mins.
She told gardaí he brought a bag of cans of beer and some weed, which they shared at the house.
Ms Flannery told gardaí Mr O’Donoghue was the person who took out the knife, and was swinging it around so she tried to wrestle it off him.
Gardaí put it to her in the interview that she did not mention the knife when she called gardaí that night, and asked if she caused the hole in his pants which revealed his wound.
In that interview, Ms Flannery admitted maybe she didn’t mention the knife on the phone, and his injury may have happened when she was trying to get the knife off him.
Ms Flannery told gardaí during her interview that if it did happen, it was completely accidental.
Defending barrister Richard Liston put what he called discrepancies in the evidence of William O’Donoghue to Garda Griffin, who said it was very difficult to take a statement from him.
