Paula Farrell pleads guilty to manslaughter in stabbing case

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Paula Farrell pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Wayne McQuillan and not guilty to his murder. Her trial was continuing at the Central Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 18 July 2019.

Farrell admitted stabbing McQuillan four times at a Drogheda address on New Year’s morning in 2014. She told her barrister, Caroline Biggs SC, that he had tried to have sex with her when she did not want to and had started strangling her before she went to the kitchen for the knife.

She agreed that she had not told gardaí about the alleged sexual assault in interviews, but denied that it was a lie. She said she did not want to believe what had happened to her.

During cross-examination by prosecutor Gerard Clarke SC, Farrell agreed that she knew stabbing McQuillan with the chef’s knife would do more than hurt him. She said she did not want him dead and had wanted to scare him. She also said he had been ‘killing’ her.