Woman questioned over death in Clonsilla

A 32-YEAR-OLD woman was being questioned last night in connection with the killing of a Lithuanian woman in an apartment in west Dublin on Christmas Day.

The woman was being questioned yesterday in Blanchardstown Garda station about the incident, in which a 52-year-old woman, believed to be her mother, died from serious injuries.

Gardaí were called to the ground-floor apartment at Station Court Hall in Clonsilla at about 9.20pm on Christmas Day. They found a seriously injured woman and immediately called a doctor but she died at the scene.

A woman, who has lived in Ireland for a number of years, was arrested at the apartment and later detained at Blanchardstown Garda station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. She can be held for questioning for up to 24 hours.

A third occupant of the apartment was not detained for questioning and gardaí say they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

The dead woman’s body remained at the scene until the arrival of the State pathologist yesterday morning. Officers from the Garda’s crime scene investigation unit carried out technical examinations and interviewed local residents during the day. The body was removed from the apartment at about 12.30pm. The results of a postmortem are expected to be made known today.

Neighbours were mostly unaware of what happened on Christmas night until yesterday, when the area remained cordoned off to everyone except local residents. The apartment in which the woman died is on the ground floor of a three-storey row of townhouses located between the Clonsilla Road and the local train station.

The blind on the front window was pulled down but the front door was ajar as gardaí continued their work yesterday.

The occupant of the apartment immediately above the one in which the woman died was not at home at the time she was injured. He later returned with his family but “heard nothing strange”, according to a family member yesterday.

The apartment complex in which the woman died is located in a quiet residential area and local residents said nothing like this had happened there before. A number of neighbours said they didn’t know who was living in the apartment and that generally they did not know their neighbours. The area is populated by a mix of Irish people and immigrants from a variety of different countries.