2025-06-20
HSE counsellor tried to paint herself as 'victim' in impeding trial, daughter of murdered woman tells court
Stage: Sentence
Outcome: On March 10 this year, Brian McHugh (40), with a former address at Cairn Court, Poppintree, Ballymun in Dublin 11 was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murdering 52-year-old Ms Thompson after a jury found he had inflicted 11 stab wounds to her chest and wrapped the cord around her neck. Arnold's defence counsel, Mr Patrick Gageby SC, told her sentence hearing today that "in one of those terrible twists of fate", soon after becoming acquainted with McHugh, the addiction worker herself became addicted to heroin and crack cocaine.