‘I’m really sorry. She’s been having an affair’: Chilling words of jealous husband who recorded himself murdering his wife

A man has been sentenced to life for the murder of his wife after gardaí found footage of the incident on a phone he set up to spy on her, a court has heard.

The father-of-two, who inadvertently recorded stabbing his Ukrainian wife to death, told paramedics and gardaí at the scene she was having an affair and he ‘freaked out’ after seeing ‘something on her phone about sex’.

Stephen Mooney, 53, was yesterday sentenced at the Central Criminal Court to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for the murder of his 43-year-old wife Anna Mooney (née Shuplikova).

At the hearing, Mooney took the stand to apologise to his wife’s family and their children.

He had pleaded guilty earlier this year to his wife’s murder. This came after gardaí hacked into his phone and discovered video footage of the build-up to the killing and an audio recording of the murder itself.

Outlining the evidence, Detective Sergeant Basil Grimes told prosecutor Desmond Dockery SC that Mooney called emergency services at 1.09am on June 15, 2023. He reported a person had been stabbed at his home on Kilbarrack Road, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5, and when asked who did it, he replied: ‘I did.’

A Dublin Fire Brigade officer was first on the scene and found Mooney kneeling over his wife’s lifeless body, speaking to emergency services on the phone. She had a knife lodged in her chest.

The defendant told the paramedic: ‘I’ve killed her… She’s my wife. This has been going on for years. I’m really sorry, she’s been having an affair.’

A garda took a note of Mooney saying: ‘She’s having an affair, it got out of control, I tried to save her, everyone’s lives are ruined.’

He added: ‘It’s awful, I’m sorry to put you through this. I saw something on her phone about sex and everything else and freaked out.’ He later said: ‘There is no suspect. I am the guilty one. There’s nothing worth this.’

Detective Garda Jeanette O’Neill carried out a technical exam of the home and found blood pooling on a couch and blood spatter on the wall behind it. Ms Mooney was lying on her back on the kitchen floor when paramedics arrived.

Pathologist Dr Sallyanne Collis said the stab wound to Ms Mooney’s chest tracked to 13.3cm and pierced the heart, diaphragm and abdominal cavity. The knife had a 16cm single-edged blade.

There were stab wounds to the lower left side of her back, the left upper arm and further incised wounds to her left hand and arm. She had ‘quite a considerable amount’ of alcohol in her system.

The pathologist concluded death was caused by multiple sharp force injuries.

Det Sgt Grimes said that weeks before Mooney was to go on trial this year, gardaí accessed his phone for the first time using updated software that allows phones to be hacked, even when they are protected by a PIN code.

Analysis of the phone found a 90-minute clip which included footage of the murder, he said. He added that Mooney can be seen leaving the room where the murder happens and returning with the weapon. The moment when Ms Mooney died was off-camera, but the audio records ‘all events leading to her death’.

Det Sgt Grimes said the video goes quiet before Mr Mooney can be seen returning to the kitchen where he drinks three glasses of water and runs water over his hands while making the 999 call.

The detective said it appears Mooney had set the phone to record in an elevated position with a view of the kitchen table. Detectives believe he set it up that way to record his wife entering her PIN into her phone so he could then take it and find out who she was contacting.

The recording was still running when Mooney attacked his wife.

The detective confirmed that Mooney has worked as an estate agent and has no previous convictions. Under cross-examination, he agreed with defence counsel Michael Bowman SC that Ms Mooney moved to Ireland from Ukraine in 2004 and the pair married in 2005. They have two children.

Det Sgt Grimes agreed the investigation had confirmed that Ms Mooney was having a relationship with a man in Germany.

Following the detective’s evidence, Mooney took the stand to apologise to his wife’s family.

‘I am truly sorry for what happened that night,’ he said.

‘It is the burden I go to bed with every night and wake up with every day. I loved Anna.’

He finished by saying: ‘I wish to apologise to my kids for the terrible suffering I have caused everybody. I hope one day everybody will be able to forgive me.’

Judge Paul McDermott imposed the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.

He said that he has no discretion in sentencing and that Mooney’s future will be determined by a parole board.