Scarlett Faulkner murder trial: threatening call heard in Co Tipperary case
The Central Criminal Court heard that the alleged killer phoned Scarlett Faulkner's sister after the fatal assault in Birdhill, Co Tipperary, in March 2026.
Threatening call to victim's sister detailed at Scarlett Faulkner murder trial
The Central Criminal Court has heard that a woman accused of murdering Scarlett Faulkner telephoned the victim's sister after a fatal assault and said: "You'd want to go and check if your whore of a sister is dead or alive up in the hospital."
According to irishexaminer.com, Victoria Faulkner gave that testimony on Tuesday at the trial of a 41-year-old woman and a teenager, both of whom deny murder. Scarlett Faulkner died on April 13 following an alleged incident at Birdhill, Co Tipperary, on March 21, 2026.
Warning messages the night before the attack
Victoria Faulkner told the jury that Scarlett had been released from a short prison sentence on March 15 and the family held a gathering to welcome her home. By Friday, March 20, however, the witness had grown worried after several days without contact from her sister, which she described as out of character. She posted a missing person notice on Facebook.
At 10.26pm that evening — one day before the fatal assault — she received a message via Facebook Messenger from the accused, reading: "Your smell-bag of a sister will pay for what she done... when I get her I'll draw a map of Ireland on her face."
Victoria Faulkner said she called the number back to find out what the sender knew about Scarlett's whereabouts. The accused was shouting, using abusive language, and making explicit threats, the witness told the court. She came to understand that the accused was angry because Scarlett was in a relationship with her former partner.
When Victoria Faulkner told the accused that Scarlett had "gone down a bad road with drugs" and was not in her right state of mind, the accused replied that Scarlett would be "well off the drugs when coming off the tubes in Cork Hospital." After the call ended, the accused continued messaging, asking for Scarlett's number and later writing: "I promise I'll get her and him. They are made for each other. Free prostitute is what she is."
The call after the assault
Shortly after 5pm the following day, Victoria Faulkner received another call. The accused's voice was "very panicky," she said, before delivering the message that Scarlett was at the hospital. When the witness asked who was responsible, the accused replied: "He did it."
Victoria Faulkner rang Limerick Hospital and learned that Scarlett was being airlifted to the emergency department. On arriving, she saw her sister taken from a helicopter to an ambulance bound for Cork University Hospital. Scarlett was wrapped in tinfoil with blood coming from her nose, ears and mouth. Her hair appeared to have been "dipped in blood," the witness said, adding: "I didn't believe I was looking at Scarlett."
The following day, Victoria Faulkner said she saw a post on Facebook in which the accused uploaded a photograph of the man Scarlett had been with before the assault, apparently "trying to put the blame" on him.
Defence challenges the significance of the threats
Marc Thompson, counsel for the older accused, told the court that his client wished to express her condolences on Scarlett's death. He suggested that during the call before the assault, his client had been shouting and angry and was "throwing out idle threats but didn't mean any of it." He put it to the witness that the language was "coarse and crude" but argued that had she genuinely believed his client intended to act, she would have contacted gardaí.
Victoria Faulkner said she had alerted her older siblings and the family agreed it was best to try to find Scarlett and "take her away." She said her family "don't believe in trouble."
Prosecution outlines joint enterprise
In his opening address earlier on Tuesday, Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing, prosecuting, told the eight-man, four-woman jury that the motive for the attack was Scarlett's relationship with the older accused's former partner. He said the older woman spent the day before the assault searching for Scarlett and her new partner before spotting him driving a Transit Van. She followed him and rammed his vehicle off the road, an incident captured on dashcam footage.
Scarlett then disembarked from the van and encountered the younger accused, who struck her 10 or 11 times on the head with a 63cm pole. The prosecution displayed the pole to the jury. Mr Ó Dúnlaing said: "That bar is of significant enough weight that to wield it in the manner she did, she could only have been using ferocious and brutal force."
While the attack on Scarlett was unfolding, the older accused was engaged in a confrontation with her former partner. Mr Ó Dúnlaing stated that although all injuries suffered by the deceased were inflicted by the teenage accused, both women were engaged in a joint enterprise. He said the two accused had "hunted down" Scarlett and her new partner with the intention of causing both serious harm.
The accused and their pleas
The 17-year-old, who cannot be identified as she is a minor, has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. Her co-accused, the 41-year-old woman, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Scarlett Faulkner. She also faces charges of burglary, entering a building as a trespasser, and causing criminal damage at a Tipperary address on March 20, as well as a further burglary charge and assault causing harm at a Limerick address on March 21, to all of which she has pleaded not guilty.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo.
Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)