A Wicklow woman says she wants to move on with her life and raise her children after being found not guilty of murdering her husband.
Sarah Doyle (32) stabbed her husband Philip Doyle (33) at their home in Gorey, Co Wexford. However, this week a jury accepted her claims of self-defence and found her not guilty of his murder.
Ms Doyle spoke briefly outside a home in Co Wicklow, where she now lives as a free woman.
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Asked if she was grateful to the jury for finding her not guilty, Ms Doyle said: “I am, but that’s all I have to say.”
She said she was unable to speak about the night she fatally stabbed her husband outside their home, saying: “I can’t speak about that.”
But she said she is now hoping to move on with her life, following a gruelling murder trial before Dublin’s Central Criminal Court.
“Yes, I’ve two children to look after,” she added.
When a jury read out the not guilty verdict on Tuesday, family members of the deceased shouted across the courtroom - leading to gardai forming a line to separate his family from her.
The week-long hearing had earlier been told how Philip Doyle had died shortly after receiving two stab wounds to his chest.
The jury of seven women and five men returned their not guilty finding after just over six hours of deliberations.
Mr and Ms Doyle, originally from Bray, Co Wicklow, had married six months prior to the incident and had two toddler sons together, while Mr Doyle also had a daughter.
Patrick Gageby SC, for Ms Doyle, had earlier said there was a “history of abuse” in the relationship and his client “producing a knife was a last resort”.
Ms Doyle told gardai that Mr Doyle had “dragged” her down the stairs by the hair when she returned home on the night of the incident and was “punched” by her husband.
One neighbour of the couple said he had seen Mr Doyle give his wife “a slap on the head” one day when he saw them arguing.
Another said she saw Ms Doyle with bruising on two separate occasions. One day she had a bruise on her arm and on another day she had a black eye.
Paul Green SC, prosecuting, said the couple had an argument which started upstairs and moved downstairs, before Ms Doyle got a knife and used it against her husband.
He said it was an unlawful killing that could not be justified on the basis of a proportionate use of force.
On the weekend of the incident, Mr Doyle’s parents, Jackie and David, visited the couple’s home in Gorey.
Jackie and Sarah went out socialising in Gorey on Saturday but came home separately.
The jury heard Mrs Doyle told her son “don’t ask” when she returned, with calls and texts following between Philip and Sarah.
Two texts from Philip said “where the f*ck are you” and “if you wake any of the kids you’ll be sleeping in the front garden”.
When she returned, Sarah said Philip had “dragged” her down the stairs by her hair when trying to remove her from the house.
Two of the neighbours said they heard Sarah shouting “self-defence” following Philip’s collapse in the front garden.
Gardai took photographs of bruising to Sarah’s nose and arm on arrest.
The jury heard from interviews conducted by detectives the day following the incident with Sarah, where she told them that she loved Philip.
She told gardai “I’m going to get sick” before breaking from the interview.
When she was charged in January 2020, the court heard she was arrested and told gardai “I didn’t mean for him to die”.
In evidence from Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster, it was heard that the first strike was a “rapidly fatal wound” from a kitchen knife 19.5cm in length, causing a wound 16.5cm in depth.
It cut into the membranous sac around Mr Doyle’s heart along with his right ventricle, causing his death as a result of hemorrhage, shock and blood filling the left lung, which also totally collapsed.
Mrs Doyle became emotional as the verdict was returned, as one of Philip’s family shouted “Are you serious!”
Justice David Keane thanked the jury after what he said was a difficult trial.
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