2025-07-04
Ex-HSE counsellor jailed for acting as get-away driver for 'violent and abusive' murderer
Stage: Sentence
Outcome: Brian McHugh (40), with a former address at Cairn Court, Poppintree, Ballymun in Dublin 11 was jailed for life for murdering 52-year-old Ms Thompson, after a jury found he had inflicted 11 stab wounds to her chest and wrapped a blind cord around her neck. Before delivering the sentence today, Mr Justice McGrath said Arnold was in a very abusive relationship with McHugh and there was no doubt he was particularly aggressive and violent to her on a number of occasions. "To some extent she was under his dominion and became a user of heroin no doubt due to the appalling abuse he visited on her in the course of their relationship," he added.