McCarthy also stabbed and beat Celina Daly, (22), a friend of Ms Delaney’s, however her injuries were described in court as not serious.

Sentencing McCarthy at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday, judge Tom O’Donnell said:

This was a vicious, frenzied, horrific assault on two strangers.

The judge said Ms Delaney’s injuries could have been fatal, given McCarthy’s ” high level of violence and aggression”.

Guilty plea

McCarthy pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Delaney and to Daly. She also admitted a charge of producing a dangerous article during the course of an assault.

McCarthy, (22), told gardai she “lost it” after claiming Delaney and a man were arguing at 2.30am in an apartment next to hers at a block of flats on Parnell Street, Limerick.

After the two victims left the building McCarthy followed them outside onto the street, knocked Delaney to the ground, and set upon her with the broken beer bottle.

John O’Sullivan, prosecuting, said McCarthy “sat on top” of Delaney and began stabbing her in the head repeatedly. He said witnesses heard McCarthy shouting, “I hope you fuc***g die”, while she continued to stab  Delaney.

“It was a frenzied attack,” O’Sullivan said.

At one point McCarthy stabbed and beat Daly after she pulled her off her seriously injured friend. McCarthy continued to stab and beat Delaney.

McCarthy also delivered several kicks to Delaney as she lay on the ground.

Unconscious

Gardaí found the victim unconscious on the ground with “blood pouring out of her”, Mr O’Sullivan said.

McCarthy was heard shouting as Delaney lay bleeding on the ground: “I hope she fuc**** dies, she’s only a fuc**** junkie”. She then told her: “You won’t be doing that again”.

McCarthy, who had swallowed a concoction of alcohol and tablets, was still at the scene when gardaí arrived. She told officers: “I bottled her”.

When asked if she was sorry, she replied: “No”. She also told gardaí: “I got her into the side of the stomach too.”

McCarthy said she realised Delaney was seriously injured and that but for the intervention of man who pulled her off the victim, she admitted she “would have kept going until she was dead”.

She added: “When I saw the blood coming down her face [I] kept going.”

The court heard Delaney, who declined to make a victim impact statement, had made a “miraculous” physical recovery.

Detective Garda Gary Laide, Roxboro Road, described how McCarthy stuck the broken glass bottle into Ms Delaney’s side which “protruded through her ribs and into her right lung”.

Delaney suffered a punctured lung, as well as cuts, bruising, and light scarring to her face and torso.

McCarthy, who has a five-year-old son, had previous convictions for engaging in abusive, insulting or threatening behaviour, the court heard.

She initially told gardaí she saw Delaney holding “a big knife” but this was accepted by her defence as being a “bogus story”.

“Whatever her reasoning was, she lost control. It was a disgraceful,” Mark Nicholas, defending, said.

A psychiatric report stated McCarthy “suffers mood swings, and has a history of anger management”.

Judge O’Donnell described the report as “insightful”. He added:

She [McCarthy] now appears to have a much clearer understanding of her actions have had on the victims.

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