A 16-year-old boy has gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court, charged with the murder of a 49-year-old woman on her way home from work in Dublin city centre last year.

The boy, who cannot be named because of his age, pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Uransetseg Tserendorj on 29 January 2021.

The boy told gardaí that he had robbed Ms Tserendorj and stabbed her in the north inner city on the evening of 20 January 2021.

She was confirmed dead in hospital nine days later.

Prosecuting counsel, Seán Gillane told the jurors the case would turn on the state of mind of the accused.

Mr Gillane said Ms Tserendorj, who was also known as Urna, was originally from Mongolia.

Her husband travelled to Ireland to work 15 years ago and she followed nine months later.

They made Ireland their home and both worked as cleaners. They had a son and a daughter.

He said Urna left work at 9pm on 20 January 2021 and was walking home, heading along a walkway between George's Dock and Custom House Quay in the north inner city.

The country was in a very serious lockdown at the time, he said, and there would be evidence that the streets were very sparsely populated.

The jury was told that after 9.30pm Ms Tserendoorj’s husband received a phone call from her in which she seemed to be in distress.

He met her at a taxi rank near Connolly station. She was holding her neck and had a wound just under her ear, which was bleeding but did not appear to be particularly big or significant.

Emergency services arrived and Urna became more distressed in the ambulance.

When she arrived at hospital she had a cardiac arrest and it became clear she had suffered a significant injury to the artery which supplies blood to the brain.

Despite herculean efforts by people to revive her, Mr Gillane said her condition worsened and she was put on life support.

Her death was confirmed on 29 January.

A post-mortem examination revealed a neck wound below her right ear.

He said they would hear her death was caused by a lack of oxygen to her brain.

The jury heard hours of CCTV footage were viewed and the accused was seen on a bicycle confronting Urna near the CHQ building, between George's Dock and Custom House Quay.

When gardaí attended the accused boy's home on 21 January 2021, he told them "I did it, I stabbed that girl, I robbed her, it was me. I stabbed that woman at CHQ".

He told them he panicked and pulled a knife out of his pocket. He said he stabbed the woman in the neck and didn't mean to do it.

Mr Gillane told them the boy was 14 years old at the time and this would feature in their assessment of the case.

The boy has pleaded guilty to producing a knife and to the attempted robbery of Ms Tserendorj.

Mr Gillane warned the jurors that just because the boy said he was guilty of something did not mean he was guilty of something else.

He said they would have to assess the state of mind of the accused on the evidence.

He said intention could be formed in a flash and regretted in an instant and a person is presumed to intend the natural and probable consequences of what they do.

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