Scarlett Faulkner ‘hunted down’ and assaulted with ‘brutal force’, murder trial hears

A woman and a teenage girl “hunted down” Scarlett Faulkner before the younger accused used “brutal, ferocious force” to beat her to death with a metal pole, a barrister has told the Central Criminal Court. Prosecution counsel Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing opened the murder trial on Tuesday, telling the jury the prosecution’s case is that both accused were part of a joint enterprise to kill or cause serious harm to Scarlett Faulkner.The motive for the attack, he said, was that Scarlett Faulkner was in a relationship with the older accused’s former partner. He said the older woman spent a day looking for the mother of one and her new partner before spotting him driving his Ford Transit van.READ MORECounsel said the older accused followed her former partner before ramming him off the road in an incident that was caught on dashcam footage. Ó Dúnlaing said Scarlett Faulkner got out of the van and encountered the younger accused, who struck her 10 or 11 times on the head with the 63cm metal pole. “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.”At the same time, Ó Dúnlaing said the older accused (41) was involved in an engagement with her former partner.The 17-year-old, who cannot be identified because she is a minor, has pleaded not guilty to Scarlett Faulkner’s murder but guilty to her manslaughter. Her co-accused pleaded not guilty to murdering the 28-year-old, who died on April 13th this year following an alleged incident at Birdhill, Co Tipperary, on March 21st. The woman also pleaded not guilty to burglary, entering a building as a trespasser and causing criminal damage at an address in Co Tipperary, on March 20th. She pleaded not guilty to a third charge of burglary and committing assault causing harm, at an address in Limerick on March 21st.While the prosecution’s case is that all the injuries suffered by the deceased were inflicted by the teenager, he said both accused engaged in a joint enterprise. Counsel said the two accused “hunted down” Scarlett Faulkner and her new partner with the intention of causing them both serious harm. He said the jury would see evidence gleaned from mobile phones, including a message sent by the older accused to Scarlett Faulkner’s sister. “Your smell-bag of a sister will pay for what she has done ... When I get her I will draw a map of Ireland on her face,” the message stated. Ó Dúnlaing said the jury would also see mobile phone footage showing the older accused holding an axe and thrashing a caravan. He said the evidence would show that she entered the caravan as a trespasser and committed acts of criminal damage.Scarlett Faulkner, counsel said, “had her own issues” and had been released from a three-month prison sentence not long before her death. There will be further evidence that she had been using crack cocaine, he said.The trial continues before Judge Kerida Naidoo and a jury of eight men and four women.