A PSYCHOLOGICAL evaluation is to be carried out in respect of a teenage girl charged in connection with the fatal assault on Scarlett Faulkner, a court heard.
The accused 16-year-old girl is charged with assault causing serious harm to Ms Faulkner (29) at the R494 at Birdhill, County Tipperary, on March 21.
The girl appeared before Nenagh District Court this Thursday morning via a video-link from a youth detention centre. She did not speak other than to indicate that she could hear and see the proceedings.
The girl’s solicitor, Turlough Herbert, Herbert and Co Solicitors, Limerick, indicated that a psychological assessment of the girl was being scheduled while she was being detained on remand.
A co-accused in the case, a 40-year-old woman, also appeared on remand before the court via video link from Limerick Prison.
The woman, who was represented by solicitor Pauric Nesbit, Darach McCarthy Solicitors & Co, Limerick, spoke only to confirm she could hear and see the proceedings.
Neither accused can be named because of reporting restrictions imposed in March.
Nenagh District Court Judge Fiona Brennan granted an application by prosecuting Gardaí, with the consent of solicitors for both accused, for a four-week adjournment. The two were remanded in continuing custody to appear before Nenagh District Court for directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions on May 15.
Gardaí previously alleged in court that the accused girl struck Ms Faulkner at least 11 times on her head with an iron bar and laughed when Gardaí showed her a photograph of Ms Faulkner’s injuries.
Gardaí told Limerick District Court last March that they responded to a report of a violent assault near Birdhill on the afternoon in question and found Ms Faulkner with critical head injuries lying on the road.
Ms Faulkner died from her injuries on April 13 after her life support was turned off at Cork University Hospital on April 12.
Gardaí alleged the accused woman had been searching for Ms Faulkner for 24 hours prior to the attack, and that she burgled and smashed up a caravan in seeking out Ms Faulkner and a man.
The court heard the caravan burglary was allegedly recorded on a mobile phone by the accused girl.
Gardaí claimed the accused woman drove herself, the accused girl, and others, in a car that pursued and rammed a van that was carrying Ms Faulkner and a man on the R494.
Gardaí alleged that Ms Faulkner was observed exiting the rammed van and that the accused girl followed her and allegedly struck her on her head at least 11 times with an iron bar.
“Each injury is sustained to the head. 11 blows to the head can be observed on CCTV,” a Garda alleged in court.
The Garda described the attack as “callous”, and further alleged that another young female recorded the assault on a mobile phone.
The Garda gave uncontested evidence that the girl told Gardaí during interviews after her arrest: “I followed her and I hit her a few times with the pole and that’s what happened.”
Neither of the accused made any reply to the charges, Gardaí said.
The court heard that both accused are presumed innocent unless they say otherwise or are proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.