Woman arrested over fatal stabbing at social gathering in Co Wicklow house

Detention follows arrests of man and woman at time Juris Viktorovs was killed who were later released without charge

Juris Viktorovs: stabbed to death at a house in Ballyconnell, Co Wicklow.
Juris Viktorovs: stabbed to death at a house in Ballyconnell, Co Wicklow.

Gardaí investigating the fatal stabbing of a man at a house in Co Wicklow in February have arrested a woman for questioning.

Her detention follows the arrests of a man and a woman at the time the victim, Juris Viktorovs, was killed. They were both released without charge.

On Tuesday, the Garda said a woman in her 30s had been arrested for questioning about the killing at a house in Ballyconnell, Shillelagh, on Thursday, February 10th. The woman has been detained under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, allowing for her to be questioned for up to 24 hours without charge. She was being held at Bray Garda station.

Gardaí believe Mr Viktorovs was stabbed to death by a person he knew at a social gathering in the property. The 36-year-old victim, who was originally from Latvia, is understood to have lived at various addresses in Co Wicklow and Co Carlow since emigrating to Ireland.

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In the months before his killing, a mix of Irish and Eastern European people had often met at the end-of-terrace local authority house to socialise. While the dead man and suspected killer were known to each other, they were not related.

Gardaí believe a number of people were in the house when the victim was stabbed after a dispute broke out at about 8pm. While the alarm was quickly raised and gardaí and paramedics went to the scene, the victim was pronounced dead there.

Gardaí arrested a woman in her 20s and a man in his 30s shortly after arriving on the evening of the killing. The two were detained at the time in Garda stations in Bray and Baltinglass for questioning under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, but were both released without charge.

The house where the killing took place was sealed off and secured by gardaí overnight and subsequently examined by members of the Garda Technical Bureau. A number of items, including knives, were taken from the house to be examined as part of the Garda investigation.

A pathologist carried out a preliminary examination of the man’s remains at the scene before they were taken for a full postmortem examination at Naas General Hospital, Co Kildare.

Conor Lally

Conor Lally

Conor Lally is Security and Crime Editor of The Irish Times