A WOMAN who suffered multiple stab wounds to her upper body and limbs was yesterday taken off a life-support machine in hospital and is expected to survive.
Gardaí investigating the attack on 44-year-old solicitor Violet Quigley last Friday at her home in Donaghmede, north Dublin, still have no motive for the incident, which is being treated as an attempted murder.
Garda sources said they expect the investigation will only significantly progress when Ms Quigley is well enough to be interviewed about her ordeal.
Detectives are keeping an open mind as to whether Ms Quigley was attacked during a random incident or burglary gone wrong or as part of a planned attack by someone with a clear motive who was known to her.
“We just don’t know at the moment but the level of violence was extreme and that would be very, very unusual for a case where the attacker didn’t know the victim,” said one Garda source.
Ms Quigley, who works in the ESB’s legal section, was alone in her home on Donaghmede Park when she was attacked just after 11.30pm.
Gardaí believe Ms Quigley, who lives alone, was attacked in the back bedroom of her house by a man armed with a knife and possibly another, more blunt, weapon.
She was stabbed in her bed on the hands, arms, legs, chest and back. She managed to make her way into the front bedroom of the property, opened the window and leaned out screaming for help from the neighbours.
A number of residents heard her shouts and when they ran to her house the hall door was open. The neighbours found Ms Quigley in a collapsed state, but still conscious, in the front bedroom.
There was a large amount of blood in that room and also in the back bedroom and the landing area linking both.
She was taken to Beaumont Hospital and after undergoing surgery has now been taken off life support. While still critically ill, she is expected to survive.
It may be some time before she is well enough to speak to gardaí about the attack and possibly identify her attacker.
Members of the Garda Technical Bureau spent the weekend at the house where the attack took place. While a number of knives have been taken from the house for examination it was unclear last night if any of these was used by the attacker.
Gardaí said it was unclear if the attack was linked to a burglary at the house two days earlier. Source said the attack has created considerable fear locally.
