Man Jailed for 'Totally Unprovoked' Stabbing of Grandmother in Dublin

A man who travelled to Dublin city centre with a plan to hunt someone and later stabbed a grandmother who had come to see the Christmas lights has been jailed for 12 years. Gretta McCullough (64) was walking with her husband in the South William Street area when she was attacked from behind with a knife by Darragh Quigley (26), a schizophrenic who the Central Criminal Court heard had stopped taking his medication. Mr Justice Paul Burns on Monday said it was a “totally unprovoked” attack in which the seven-inch blade went “right through” the woman’s neck but “miraculously missed all crucial structures”. He said the incident robbed Ms McCullough of her independence and confidence and left her with a persistent underlying vulnerability. The judge said attempted murder is “a most grave” offence and, as in this case, there is often some fortuitous circumstance that saves the victim from death or major injury. Mr Justice Burns said there was an element of planning involved, as Quigley had armed himself with a large knife and travelled to the city centre before deliberately attacking Ms McCullough. He said the defendant’s intention was to kill and he had “plunged” the knife into the victim’s neck “in such a fashion that it protruded out the other side”. Last month, Ms McCullough said in a victim impact statement that being stabbed felt like a brick being smashed into the back of her head. She said she had “no time to react, no opportunity to defend myself and no understanding at first of what happened”. “Almost immediately I became aware of an unnatural and deeply distressing sensation as a knife penetrated the back of my head on one side and exited through the other,” she said. Sentencing Quigley, Mr Justice Burns said the defendant had gone into the city with a knife and a plan to hunt someone. When gardaí asked him why “that woman” was chosen, Quigley replied: “I didn’t know her face, her story, I didn’t know anything about her, it was purely random.” However, the judge noted that Quigley also told gardaí he felt disgusted about what he had done and had genuine remorse for doing it. Mr Justice Burns said CCTV footage retrieved from the area showed Quigley following the couple for a number of minutes before carrying out this “totally unprovoked attack”. Quigley, of Carndonagh Road, Donaghmede, Dublin, pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Ms McCullough on November 16th, 2023, at Chatham Row, Dublin 2. The judge said Ms McCullough and her husband were walking around the South William Street area when the defendant came from behind and “plunged” a bread knife into the victim’s neck. He said the knife “remained in situ” and the victim’s husband confronted Quigley, who fled the scene. He said Ms McCullough soon became aware there was a knife in the back of her neck and pulled it out. Mr Justice Burns said a UK-based psychiatrist found that Quigley had a significant history of involvement in mental health units since his teenage years and was diagnosed in 2023 with suffering from drug-induced psychosis. He said the psychiatrist also found the defendant has schizophrenia and was actively psychotic at the time of the offence. However, the judge said the expert witness had concluded that Quigley did not meet the legal criteria to support a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity and that he could distinguish right from wrong. The judge said Quigley had significant mental health issues and that cannabis abuse was a contributory factor, although there was no evidence he was intoxicated at the time. He said the defendant had stopped adhering to his mental health treatment regime and the psychiatrist found Quigley could have restrained himself from committing the act. Mr Justice Burns set the headline sentence at 14½ years imprisonment. In mitigation, he noted the guilty plea and that a letter of remorse had been handed into the court. He sentenced Quigley to 13 years in prison with the final year suspended for a period of five years. The judge said it would be a matter of medical opinion whether the defendant needs to be treated in a secure medical facility upon his release, but he recommended that a psychiatric assessment be carried out two months before his release.