A father of two who recorded the moment he stabbed his wife to death told emergency responders he killed her after he “freaked out”, a court has heard.
Stephen Mooney (53) was on Monday sentenced at the Central Criminal Court to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife Anna Mooney, née Shuplikova.
Mooney pleaded guilty to his wife’s murder earlier this year after gardaí accessed the contents of his phone and discovered video footage of the build-up to the murder and an audio recording of the murder itself.
Outlining the evidence, Det Sgt Basil Grimes told the court Mooney called emergency services at 1.09am on June 15th, 2023. He reported that a person had been stabbed at his home on Kilbarrack Road, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5, and when asked who did it he replied: “I did.”
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A Dublin Fire Brigade officer was first on the scene and found Mooney kneeling over his wife’s lifeless body, speaking to emergency services on the phone. She had a knife lodged in her chest.
The defendant told the paramedic: “I’ve killed her ... She’s my wife. This has been going on for years. I’m really sorry. She’s been having an affair.”
A garda who arrived a short time later took a note of Mooney saying: “She’s having an affair. It got out of control, I tried to save her. Everyone’s lives are ruined.”
He also said: “It’s awful. I’m sorry to put you through this. I saw something on her phone about sex and everything else and freaked out.”
He later said: “There is no suspect. I am the guilty one. There’s nothing worth this.”
Det Gda Jeanette O’Neill found blood pooling on a couch and blood spatter on the wall immediately behind it. Ms Mooney was lying on the kitchen floor when paramedics arrived.
Pathologist Dr Sallyanne Collis said the stab wound to Ms Mooney’s chest tracked to 13.3cm and pierced the heart, diaphragm and abdominal cavity. There were further stab wounds to her back and her upper arm and incised wounds to her hand and arm.
The pathologist said death was caused by multiple sharp force injuries.
Det Sgt Grimes said that, weeks before Mooney was due to go on trial, gardaí accessed his phone using updated software that can access content protected by a password. Analysis of the phone uncovered a 90-minute video clip that included footage of the murder, he said.
He said Mooney could be seen leaving the room where the murder happened and returning with the weapon. The moment when Ms Mooney died happened off-camera, he said, but the audio recorded “all events leading to her death”.
Det Sgt Grimes said the video went quiet before Mr Mooney could be seen returning to the kitchen where he drank three glasses of water and ran water over his hands while making the 999 call.
The detective said it appeared that Mooney himself set the phone to record in an elevated position with a view of the kitchen table. Detectives believed Mooney set it up that way to record his wife entering her pin number into her own phone, so he could use it to find out who she was contacting.
The detective confirmed Mooney had worked as an estate agent and had no previous convictions.
Under cross-examination, he agreed with Michael Bowman SC, defending, that Ms Mooney moved to Ireland from Ukraine in 2004 and the pair married in 2005. They have two children together.
Det Sgt Grimes agreed the investigation confirmed Ms Mooney was having a relationship with a man in Germany. Her brother, Anton Shuplikova, listened to the proceedings from Ukraine using a video-link and an interpreter.
Following the detective’s evidence, Mooney took the stand to apologise to his wife’s family.
“I am truly sorry for what happened that night,” he said. “It is the burden I go to bed with every night and wake up with every day.”
He also said: “I wish to apologise to my kids for the terrible suffering I have caused everybody. I hope one day everybody will be able to forgive me,” he said.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott imposed life imprisonment. He said he had no discretion in sentencing and Mooney’s future would be determined by a parole board.
