Zimbabwean national Norma Phillips fatally stabbed Stefan Neanu in the heart during a drunken row at her Dublin flat. She first told emergency workers and Gardaí that an Irish intruder had done it. A unanimous jury acquitted her of murder but convicted her of manslaughter on the basis of excessive self-defence.
The killing of Stefan Neanu
Phillips and Romanian national Stefan Neanu had been in a casual relationship for about four months. After drinking at a Greek Orthodox Easter gathering on 12 April 2015, they returned to her Phibsborough flat and argued. Neanu suffered a single knife wound that perforated his lung and heart.
Phillips called emergency services but initially claimed that a masked Irish man had entered, stabbed Neanu and fled. She was reluctant to admit Gardaí, saying she wanted only an ambulance. After being told at Mountjoy Garda station that Neanu had died, she changed her account and said she acted in self-defence when he waved the knife at her.
What the jury decided
State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy said the injury could have occurred in the manner Phillips described, although a firm grip and moderate force would have been involved. The trial judge explained that reasonable self-defence required acquittal, intent without self-defence could support murder, and genuine self-defence using unreasonable force supported manslaughter.
After seven hours, the jury unanimously found Phillips not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. The final conviction must therefore be reported as manslaughter, not murder.
Sentence and family criticism
On 20 February 2017 Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan selected five-and-a-half years and suspended the final two, leaving three-and-a-half years. The sentence was backdated for nine months already spent in custody.
The judge placed the offence at the lower end of manslaughter, acknowledging previous good character, genuine remorse, an earlier manslaughter plea rejected by the State and engagement with rehabilitation. She treated Phillips’s repeated initial lies as aggravating. Neanu’s family publicly criticised the term as too short.
No published appeal, exact release date or immigration outcome was located. Zimbabwean nationality alone does not establish status or deportability.
Chronology
- 12 April 2015: fatal stabbing at the Phibsborough flat.
- That night: false intruder account given, then self-defence account.
- 17 January 2017: Central Criminal Court trial begins.
- 25 January 2017: unanimous manslaughter verdict.
- 20 February 2017: five-and-a-half years with two suspended.
- Latest located record: no published appeal or immigration disposition identified.
Cost benchmark
The three-and-a-half immediate years represent a static staffed-prison-space benchmark of €346,752 at the Irish Prison Service’s 2024 average. The full nominal five-and-a-half-year term would benchmark at €544,896.
Questions the record leaves
- What did the investigation, trial and imprisonment cost?
- What release date followed backdating and remission?
- Was the absence of any appeal confirmed beyond the published record?
- Did any post-sentence immigration review occur?