Urantsetseg Tserendorj murder: Victim attacked on lonely IFSC street as most of the world hid from Covid

Doctors were trying to treat the injuries that would kill Urantsetseg ‘Urnaa’ Tserendorj when the 14-year-old who had stabbed her 30 minutes earlier walked up behind a second woman and tried to steal her mobile phone. Tayo Odelade fought back, pulled her phone away and put distance between her and the teen. She looked back as the boy opened his jacket, took out the knife he had used to stab Ms Tserendorj and said, “that could have ended a lot worse for you”.

He was, according to his own lawyers, intoxicated and circling the inner city, deserted due to the Covid lockdown, looking for anyone to rob. Although only 14, he had been abusing drugs for two years and needed money to pay for his addiction. CCTV footage of the fatal attack on Ms Tserendorj showed how isolated she was on Custom House Quay at that time – a lone woman on a wide walkway in Dublin’s financial district while most of the world hid from the virus in their homes.

The accused, who is now 16 and can’t be named because he is a minor, stabbed Ms Tserendorj in the neck on a walkway between George’s Dock and Custom House Quay in the IFSC, Dublin on January 20th, 2021.

[ Boy (16) found guilty of murder of Uransetseg Tserendorj ]

Towards the end of his first trial earlier this year, in which the jury could not reach a verdict, the boy’s grandmother was called by the defence after the prosecution had finished its case. She said that when the accused was born he had to be weaned off heroin. When he was well enough to leave hospital, his grandmother took him and raised him as one of her own. His first time meeting his mother was when she walked up to him in the street, told him he was her son and asked for a hug. She was intoxicated and left her son feeling humiliated in front of his friends.

‘As I opened our bedroom door, there was a neighbour going past. She had blood on her hands’

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Since the age of 12, his grandmother said, he has been abusing drugs and would rob and steal to pay for his habit. She was there throughout the trial, often chatting with her grandson during the frequent breaks in proceedings.

The jury in that first trial did not hear about the attempted robbery of Ms Odelade because the judge, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring, ruled that it might lead them to speculate about what the boy meant when he said: “That could have ended a lot worse for you.” She said the evidence was more prejudicial than probative and ruled it as inadmissible. In the second trial Mr Justice Tony Hunt ruled that it was appropriate evidence for the jury to hear.

Apart from the attack on Ms Tserendorj and the attempted robbery of Ms Odelade, the accused also pleaded guilty to threatening to kill or cause serious harm to another man on the same day and to robbing an electric pedal bike two days earlier.

It was the electric pedal bike that brought gardaí to his door. They had no idea the suspected bike thief was the person responsible for stabbing the Mongolian woman at the IFSC, a story that had interrupted the continuous Covid news updates. When they arrived the then 14-year-old’s grandmother was already upset; her grandson had just told her, “that woman that was stabbed in the IFSC, that was me”. She told Garda David O’Callaghan that the boy had “done something terrible” and was planning to hand himself in. When they entered the house, gardaí found the boy in his upstairs bedroom. “I did it,” he said, “I stabbed that girl, I robbed her, it was me, I stabbed that woman at CHQ [Customs House Quay].”

Garda O’Callaghan was unsure what the boy was talking about but cautioned him, brought him downstairs and again cautioned him in front of his grandmother before asking him what happened. “I went out on a bike with a knife on me to rob someone,” the boy said. “I was around CHQ. I saw a woman with a mask on and I went to rob her. I panicked, I pulled a knife out of my pocket. I stabbed that woman in the neck, I done it. I didn’t mean to do it. I’m sorry for it.”

Ulumbayer Surenkhor, the victim’s husband, required an interpreter to give his evidence. He said that he and his wife are from Mongolia. He moved to Ireland 16 years ago and she followed nine months later. Their two children attended school in Ireland while he and Urnaa, as his wife was known, got jobs as cleaners. Urnaa had been working for about two years with financial services company State Street in the Dublin docklands. Despite the covid restrictions she was still working from Monday to Friday and on January 20th, 2021 she was doing her ordinary shift from 5pm to 9pm.

She would walk to and from work, Mr Surenkhor said, and she was close to home when she met her killer at CHQ not long after 9pm. CCTV showed him getting off his bike and trying to steal her bag.

The attack was over in seconds and the CCTV was not clear enough to show precisely what happened. But Urnaa held on to her handbag and walked away holding the wound to her neck. She called her husband to tell him, “I’m dying, please hurry.” Her attacker got back on his bike and cycled away to continue his crime spree, nobody having seen what he did on the otherwise empty street.

The seriousness of the wound was not immediately apparent to anyone other than the victim, who was able to walk the short distance to Connolly Station. Mr Surenkhor had sprinted from his home and found her there, holding her neck but with only a small amount of blood visible. A taxi driver saw what was happening and called the emergency services.

Paramedic James Eagers said Ms Tsererndorj seemed calm when he arrived. He sat her into the back of the ambulance and could see the injury below her right ear, about the size of a five-cent piece. He saw a little blood so he placed a dressing over the wound and took her vitals. Her heart rate, oxygen levels and blood pressure were normal but because of the location of the wound the decision was made to bring her to hospital and Mr Eagers rang ahead to get the emergency room ready.

Urnaa said goodbye to her husband who could not go with her because of Covid protocols. He walked home alone and noticed that he had left the house in such a hurry that he was wearing his slippers.

As the ambulance pulled away Mr Eagers noticed that Mr Tserendorj’s condition was beginning to change. He put her on a trolley and gave her oxygen. They arrived at the Mater hospital in about three minutes but the patient had by then become agitated. Mr Eagers said: “There was a change in her demeanour, she was becoming more distressed. I tried to calm her down, she seemed like she was panicking. I said to breathe slowly, she said she couldn’t.”

Her oxygen levels were still normal as they entered the resuscitation room but Mr Eagers could see that her lips were turning blue. He handed her over to the emergency team. Her heart had stopped beating and although doctors were able to restart it, she had already succumbed to her injury. Dr Jennifer Hastings told the trial that the deceased’s brain had been starved of oxygen due to blood loss. She was pronounced dead nine days after first being admitted to hospital. Mr Surenkhor, who was allowed to visit once doctors realised the seriousness of the injury, was at her bedside throughout.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers told the trial that the stab wound had partially severed the internal carotid artery – the main artery bringing blood to the brain. She said there was an “element of misfortune” because stab wounds to the neck usually damage less vital structures such as the muscles or less crucial veins and arteries.

Sean Guerin SC, who took over as lead counsel for the prosecution in the second trial, said that the teenager lashed out at his victim with a knife in a “callous, unprovoked and vicious act of thuggery”. He said that intention does not have to be premeditated but can be formed in an instant and added: “Even a person who is profoundly regretful may still have had the necessary intention at the time.”

“If the intent to cause serious injury exists and death results, a verdict of guilty to murder is deserved.”

Mr Guerin said that the CCTV footage of the attack showed not one but two blows being struck against Ms Tserendorj that were capable of causing the wound that killed her.

“There appeared to have been two quite deliberate blows with the knife,” he said. “You see on the footage what is done; you see her try to parry one of the blows, and you see what the accused does twice.” He said that the accused cycled toward Ms Tserendorj, he got off his bike, approached her in an aggressive manner, and then reached to get the knife out.

“He didn’t have the knife out when he approached her. He may have taken it out not to rob her but at his annoyance when she didn’t have money,” said Mr Guerin.

“The use of the knife was only incidentally related to the robbery. There was no attempt to rifle through her bag. He asked for money, she said she didn’t have any, and, whether in anger or frustration, he lashed out repeatedly. This may be a callous, unprovoked, and vicious act of thuggery that was intended to cause an injury.”

The prosecution said that the accused intended the natural and probable consequences of his actions, and that was to cause serious harm.

“To go for the neck with a knife is to go for the most vulnerable area,” Mr Guerin said.

He said that the later comment to Ms Odelade “shows that, within a very short time, he understood exactly what it was to wield a knife”.

“He weighed up the risks to himself and his reaction was measured and self-conscious, and having been offended, he showed a desire to respond in a way that showed he could do her harm if he wanted to,” he said.

Mr Guerin said that Ms Tserendorj never presented any threat to the accused. She was trying to defend herself and the accused twice swung a very sharp knife at her neck. Mr Guerin said that the accused may have been intoxicated at the time “but the way he approached her, he knew exactly what he was doing”.

In the defence’s closing statement, Michael O’Higgins SC asked the jury to consider whether this was a case where someone with malice was trying to stick a knife into someone’s neck or was it a chaotic event with pushing and shoving and flailing in which the knife accidentally went into the victim’s neck.

“If it was his intention to cause harm, why didn’t he move in again? Why, when it appeared she wasn’t injured, did he cycle off? How is that consistent with the intention to cause serious injury?” asked Mr O’Higgins.

Mr O’Higgins said the accused was unaware he had inflicted an injury on Ms Tserendorj. “Why is he unaware he had inflicted a serious injury? Why is he surprised? Why is he so contrite? He was unaware because he was using the knife to intimidate,” he said.

Mr O’Higgins said that when the accused later tried to rob Ms Odelade, she gave as good as she got and insulted him.

“Would that not be the perfect storm for a young person carrying a knife to go up to someone weaker than them? Are these not the buttons that would have pressed the anger button? Would that not be the circumstance in which the element of self-restraint would be gone?” counsel asked.

He said no one could conclude that there was any precision targeting with the knife.

Mr O’Higgins had the CCTV footage played again for the jury, reminding them that some of the footage was of low quality. He said the prosecution had presented the case in the “comic strip form” of a young person coming along with a knife and “going for the jugular”.

“Far from going for the jugular, it’s much more consistent with pushing and shoving and flailing,” he said.

He concluded by saying: “There is a doubt in this case that there was an intention to cause a serious injury.”

A jury of six men and five women on Friday found the boy guilty of murder and Mr Justice Hunt remanded the teenager in custody for sentence next month.