According to the Central Criminal Court, Gardaí broke into the phone of a man who is suspected of killing his wife by stabbing her, and they found audio and video evidence of the crime, reports RTE.
On June 15, 2023, Stephen Mooney, 52, entered a guilty plea to the murder of his wife, Anna Mooney, 46, at their residence on Kilbarrack Road in Kilbarrack, Dublin.
Ms. Mooney, a mother of two Ukrainian children, passed away after being stabbed in the kitchen of the house they shared, reports RTE.
On February 7, 2024, prosecution Senior Counsel Desmond Dockery informed the court of a “significant development” in the case, even though Mooney was scheduled to stand trial for murder.
He said that although the Gardaí had confiscated the accused’s phone at the site of the incident, they were unable to access its contents because they lacked the password and pin code, reports RTE.
But a new update to the Cellebrite software, which gardaí employ to examine mobile phones, makes it possible to open phones without a password.
“It became immediately apparent that it contained highly relevant video and audio of the minutes leading up to the fatal incident and the fatal incident itself,” Mr. Dockery said after the gardaí opened Mooney’s phone, reports RTE.
Michael Bowman, Mooney’s senior counsel at the time, stated that “what had been impossible, is now a reality” as a result of the Cellebrite software development.
Mr. Bowman stated that he needed to speak with his client “immediately” in light of the new information, reports RTE.
After those appearances, Mooney was arraigned in court on the day his trial was initially scheduled to start.
The one accusation that Mooney killed Ms. Mooney in the family home was met with a “guilty” response, reports RTE.
In order to allow for potential testimonies from the victim’s family, Mr. Justice Paul McDermott postponed sentencing, even though he faces the obligatory life term for murder.
Mooney is still being held, and on June 18, when a sentence date is scheduled, the case will be discussed, reports RTE.
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