Latest news with #Mooney
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Man tried to catch wife cheating - but inadvertently filmed himself killing her
Stephen Mooney, 52, brutally killed his wife with a knife and the mother of his two children after he suspected she had been having an affair, with horrifying audio recording the murder A man who set up a camera in a bid to catch his wife cheating inadvertently filmed himself murdering her. Stephen Mooney, 52, was sentenced to life behind bars following at Ireland's Central Criminal Court, in Dublin, on Monday. Mooney murdered his 43-year-old wife Anna and at a hearing he apologised to his wife's family as well as their two children. He pleaded guilty to her murder earlier this year after Gardaí (Irish police) hacked into his pone and discovered video footage of the build-up to the murder as well as an audio recording of the murder itself. Detective Sergeant Basil Grimes told prosecutor Desmond Dockery SC that Mooney alerted emergency services at about 1:09am on June 15, 2023. He reported a person had been stabbed at his home in Kilbarrack Road, Kilbarrack, in Dublin, and when he was asked who did it, he replied: "I did." A fire brigade officer was first on the scene and found Mooney kneeling over his wife's lifeless body, speaking to emergency services. A knife still lodged in her chest. Mooney told a paramedic: "I've killed my wife. This has been going on for years. I'm really sorry, she's been having an affair." A Garda who arrived a short time later 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 found blood pooled on a couch as well as blood spatter on the wall just behind it. Ms Mooney was on her back in the kitchen floor when paramedics arrived. Pathologist Dr Sallyanne Collins said the stab wound pierced the heart, diaphragm and abdominal cavity. The knife that had been lodged in her chest had a 16cm single-edged blade and a wooden handle, the Irish Mirror reporter. Gardaí assessed his phone for the first time using updated software that allowed phones to be hacked, even when they are protected by a password or pincode. Analysis of the phone uncovered a 90-minute video clip that included footage of the murder. Mooney could be seen leaving the room where the killing happened and returning with the murder weapon. The moment Anna was murdered happened off-camera, but audio did record "all events leading to her death." Detective grimes said the video then went quiet before Mooney could be seen returning to the kitchen where he drank three glasses of water before running water over his hands while making the 999 call. The detective confirmed that Mooney has worked as an estate agent and has no previous convictions. Mooney agreed with defence counsel Michael Bowman SC that Anna moved to Ireland from Ukraine in 2004 and that they married in 2005. The couple has two children together. An investigation found Anna had a relationship with a man in Germany. Neither of the children were in court, but Anna's brother Anton Shuplikova listened to proceedings from Ukraine using a video-link and interpreter. 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. I want to say sorry to Anton and his extended family." 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." Mr Justice Paul McDermott imposed a mandatory life sentence. He added he has no discretion in sentencing and that Mooney's future will be determined by a parole board.
Irish Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Man who recorded murder of his wife after finding out about affair learns fate
A father of two who inadvertently recorded the moment he stabbed his wife to death told paramedics and Gardaí at the scene that the deceased was having an affair and he "freaked out" after seeing "something on her phone about sex", a court has heard. Stephen Mooney, 53, was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on Monday to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for the murder of his 43-year-old wife Anna Mooney (nee Shuplikova). At the hearing, Mooney took the stand to apologise to his wife's family and their two children. Mooney pleaded guilty to his wife's murder earlier this year after Gardaí hacked into his phone and discovered video footage of the build-up to the murder 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 that 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 who arrived a short time later 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 immediately behind it. Ms Mooney was lying on her back on the kitchen floor when paramedics arrived. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week 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 that had been lodged in her chest had a 16cm single-edged blade and a wooden handle. There were further 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 that death was caused by multiple sharp force injuries. Detective Garda Grimes said that weeks before Mooney was due 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 password or pincode. Analysis of the phone uncovered a 90-minute video clip which included footage of the murder, he said. He said Mooney can be seen leaving the room where the murder happens and returning with the murder weapon. The moment when Ms Mooney died happened off-camera, he said, but the audio records "all events leading to her death". Detective Garda Grimes said the video then 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 that Mooney himself had set the phone to record in an elevated position with a view of the kitchen table. Detectives believe that Mooney set it up that way to record his wife entering her pin number into her own phone so that he could then take her phone 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 together. Detective Garda Grimes agreed that the investigation had confirmed that Ms Mooney was having a relationship with a man in Germany. Neither of the Mooney children were in court for Monday's hearing but Ms Mooney's brother, Anton Shuplikova, listened to the proceedings from Ukraine using a video-link and an interpreter. 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. I want to say sorry to Anton and his extended family." 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." Mr Justice Paul McDermott imposed the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. He said that while the family did not make a victim impact statement, from the evidence and the nature of the offence, he understands the "huge damage and trauma that has been caused". He said he has no discretion in sentencing and Mooney's future will be determined by a parole board. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Biggest upset brings huge payoff at Assiniboia Downs
Trainer Bill Mooney did his impression of the movie '50 to 1' on Wednesday night at Assiniboia Downs, bum leg included, blowing up the tote board with a $104.10 winner that also led to a massive $1 Pick 4 payoff of $27,239.05. And he knew she was going to win. The 75-year-old trainer from Montana teamed up with jockey Dario Dalrymple and fellow trainer Curtis Maxwell to pull off the biggest upset of the meeting in the fifth race on Wednesday evening with the 6-year-old mare Ropers N Wranglers. Everyone in the barn bet on her — except Maxwell, who got distracted at the grandstand and forgot to. GEORGE WILLIAMS The 50-1 Crew (from left): trainer Bill Mooney, jockey Dario Dalrymple and trainer Curtis Maxwell. 'I was talking to someone, I looked up and they were already in the gate,' said Maxwell, who was paddocking the horse for Mooney partly because Mooney had injured his leg in a stall when a horse ran into him. 'The race started and it was too late.' 'I had $10 across on her,' said Mooney. 'I got back around $700.' Ropers N Wranglers paid $104.10 to win, $33.50 to place, and $8.80 to show, and knocked just about every live ticket holder out of the Pick 4. The first race in the Pick 4 sequence was also won by a longshot, Ethan's Animal ($27.10), trained by Ryan Desjarlais. In the sixth race and third leg of the Pick 4, last year's Winnipeg Futurity winner Welcometohollywood ($8.20) recaptured her stakes-winning form and won the $50,000 Jack Hardy Stakes for trainer Jared Brown, setting up a monster Pick 4 payoff in the seventh race. There were only five live Pick 4 tickets heading into the seventh race, and three of them required favourite Lab Rat to win for the $27,000 payoff. The other two live tickets — on second choice Burn Jakey Burn and third favourite Cajun Eddie — were both paying over $70,000. If one of the other three horses in the race had won, nobody would have held a winning Pick 4 ticket, and the pool of $121,206 would have carried over to the next day. Lab Rat ($4.10) won the seventh race, and three lucky ticket holders filled their pillowcases with over $27,000 each. But oh, the havoc the '50 to 1' crew caused! The payoffs in Ropers N Wranglers race were also huge, including a $1 Exacta of $598.35, a 20-cent Trifecta that paid $392.20, a 20-cent Superfecta of $1,505.37, and a 20-cent Pick 3 that paid $679.52. 'We knew she was going to win,' said Mooney, who had claimed the horse in her previous start for $5,000 after a discussion with her former owner/trainer Eugene Burns. Burns pointed out that the horse was sprinting at ASD when her actual forte was distance races. Ropers N Wranglers had broken her maiden at Santa Anita for a $50,000 claiming price going 1 1/8-miles on the turf and had also finished fourth in the $50,000 Emerald Downs Distaff Stakes going 1 1/16 miles on the dirt just a year ago on August 11, 2024. Class everywhere, yet she started out winning here this year in a $5,000 claiming sprint on June 2. 'When I first got her, she wasn't really eating that well,' said Mooney. 'But then she started eating and started to get happy.' 'She ran off on me twice in the morning,' added Dalrymple, signalling her willingness to run. 'She was ready.' Every Second Friday The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Ropers N Wranglers stretched out to a distance for the first time at the Downs on Wednesday and surprised everyone except her connections, forcing the pace from the inside, opening up into the stretch and easily holding off the favourite late to win by 1¼-lengths. Dalrymple knew he had them the whole race. Mooney is a log home builder who trains horses when he's not building, simply because he loves the lifestyle and the horses. He has three horses in training right now. Ropers N Wranglers gave him his first win of the meeting, but she was claimed away from him after the win. For Dalrymple, it was win number four on the season. Maxwell hasn't won yet this year, but he's hoping his one-horse stable can come through for him. Mooney says he loves training mares. 'I just love making them happy,' he said. 'If you can get them happy, they'll give you everything they've got. They'll run for you.' Which was kind of what Maxwell wanted to do after the race, but in a different context—more like running away. Even his sister bet on the horse.
Otago Daily Times
14-07-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Group shows confidence in hospital plan
A privately owned public hospital for the Central Otago-Queenstown Lakes area is not quite a done deal — but one might be forgiven for thinking so after a show of confidence from southern leaders. The Otago Central Lakes Health Services Project steering group issued a statement yesterday saying Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) was "prioritising" work on a clinical services plan for the region that would "clear the way" for a new hospital in the region. "It could be New Zealand's first large privately owned and publicly operated hospital," the statement said. HNZ did not respond to questions yesterday. However, the steering group — comprising Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Glyn Lewers, Waitaki MP Miles Anderson, Act New Zealand MP Todd Stephenson, of Queenstown, Southland MP Joseph Mooney and Central Otago District Mayor Tamah Alley — said it had a "positive meeting" with Health Minister Simeon Brown recently. Mr Mooney said the public-private partnership the steering group was pursuing was not yet a done deal — nor would a new hospital, in Queenstown, affect the status of the new Dunedin hospital as the region's tertiary hospital. "I guess there are no done deals — a lot of work has been done to get to this point and a lot more needs to be done," the National Party MP said. "It is arguably the farthest the region has got for a decade to getting a significant change to health services. "It will improve Central Lakes health, and it is also going to improve health services across the entire region because of the pressure of this fast-growing population. "Visitor numbers to Central Otago push a lot of people down to those base hospitals." He said HNZ had agreed to use "more accurate" council-derived population projections for its planning, instead of Stats NZ figures. Mr Mooney said the government statistics were off and "it would be silly" to model from inaccurate numbers. Stats NZ suggested the population was growing at 1.5% a year, when council statistics were closer to 6%, he said. Lakes District Hospital in Queenstown was built in 1988 to cater for 4500 people. The current combined resident-only Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago districts' population is 78,400. In 2024, Queenstown had a peak day population, including visitors, of 168,353. Peak day population is projected to be 303,628 by 2054. The update on the health project work came in the wake of a regional deal announcement for the area. At the start of the month, the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago district councils, along with the Otago Regional Council, won the right to negotiate a new 10-year partnership with central government designed to progress shared priorities. Yesterday's statement noted the regional deal proposal included health as a cornerstone. It said a hospital in Queenstown — "built and financed by a private investor from which public services can be delivered by HNZ" — was in the planning stage. It also touted private surgical hospitals for both Queenstown and Wanaka. Mr Lewers said investing in health in the area was a long time coming. "Until recently, despite our growth, Health NZ had no plans for expansion in our area. "We're finally on their radar." The hospital would work alongside current or planned private providers in Alexandra, Clyde, Cromwell, Wānaka and Queenstown, which, Mr Mooney said, would be co-ordinated. "We would start mapping and talking to what services already exist across all those centres." The statement from the steering group said decades of under-investment in health services and infrastructure in the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago districts had led to problems when seeking speciality and emergency healthcare. Many patients in Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago had to make a six-hour return drive for their healthcare. Last year, there were 300 helicopter transfers from Lakes District Hospital costing $6.3 million, it said.
IOL News
14-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Bridging the skills gap in SA starts with reimagining its approach to education
As the world hurtles toward a more digital, automated and interconnected future, the question that should be on our minds as a nation is - 'Are graduates being adequately prepared with the right skills to survive and thrive, now and in the future?' Nearly half of young South Africans are not in formal employment, education or training and those graduates that are, aren't being adequately prepared with the right skills to not just survive but thrive. We need to reframe the approach we are taking to teaching and learning in schools, the previous traditional academic pathways no longer give graduates the skills required for employment and too many young South Africans are still entering the job market underprepared. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, employers anticipate that 39% of core skills required in the job market will change by 2030. Technological proficiencies such as AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy are projected to see rapid growth in demand. Human skills like creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, curiosity, social influence and environmental stewardship are also expected to rise in importance, underlining the importance of thinking about the increasing rise of AI in terms of a human-in-the-loop approach. 'Most universities are still largely geared toward traditional academic disciplines and theoretical learning, and while these remain important, they don't always translate into employability. What's needed is a mindset shift, from qualification-first thinking to skills-first education,' says Dr. Gill Mooney, Dean Academic Development and Support at The IIE, including Varsity College and Vega, educational brands of the Independent Institute of Education (The IIE). To bridge this growing gap between what the world of work demands and what education currently provides, South Africa must urgently reassess how and what is being taught in classrooms and lecture theatres alike. A future-focused education system can no longer be built solely on rote learning, or memorisation and limited application of theoretical knowledge, but must equip young people with the skills to think critically, adapt quickly and engage meaningfully, particularly in uncertain and rapidly evolving environments. Analytical thinking, resilience and emotional intelligence are no longer 'nice-to-haves', but are the very qualities employers now prioritise alongside technical skills like data literacy, AI proficiency and digital communication. Yet, in a country where youth unemployment remains stubbornly high and nearly half of 15- to 24-year-olds are not in employment, education or training (NEET), too many young South Africans are still entering the job market underprepared. This is not a problem unique to South Africa, but it is one that must be tackled head-on, says Mooney. 'It requires a shift in the philosophy of teaching itself. That means moving from qualification-first models to skills-first thinking, where knowledge is contextualised, debated and applied. It means placing more value on curiosity, creativity and problem-solving than on reproducing and applying facts in limited contexts.' Some local institutions have started responding to this challenge by reimagining what higher education looks like. For example, the IIE's teaching models across its campuses — including IIE Varsity College, IIE Vega and IIE MSA — are being adapted to centre learning on dialogue, engagement and real-world problem-solving. Students are encouraged to explore multiple perspectives and to test theory through diverse applications, whether in collaborative projects, simulated work environments or industry engagements. 'We must move from simply transmitting knowledge to fostering the kind of thinking that allows students to navigate ambiguity, work effectively in teams and continue learning long after graduation,' says Mooney. In a labour market where change is the only constant, South Africa's education system must evolve from producing graduates with more theoretical knowledge, to producing graduates who can adapt, lead and create, in order to build a more inclusive, resilient and future-ready workforce.
