Killer out early despite attack on prison officer

Kelly Noble (27) who joined her convicted murderer mother in jail - after she herself was found guilty of manslaughter -has been freed from the Dochas centre.

She stabbed 19-year-old Emma McLoughlin, to death outside Pat's Supermarket in Laytown, Co Meath on June 2, 2006.

Noble’s two screaming children were looking on.

The confrontation happened after Ms McLoughlin accused Noble of kicking her in the stomach while she was pregnant.

Kelly Noble is now staying at a probation service-supervised house on Dublin's northside in advance of her full release, which is scheduled for December.

The killer is being released four-and-a-half years into a six-year sentence, in accordance with the standard 25pc remission, despite the fact that she was far from a model prisoner.

She tackled a prison officer who was in the progress of making a drugs seizure and was transferred within the prison system on a number of occasions.

The Probation Service will try to reintegrate her into society before her formal release before Christmas.

Kelly Noble joined her mother Jacqui in jail in June 2006 after stabbing the 19-year-old mother of two to death in Laytown.

Jacqui is still serving a life sentence for the murder of her husband in Ballymun a decade ago.

Both women suffered horrifying abuse at the hands of Kelly's father in the years before his death.

In 2004, her mother was convicted of the murder of 33-year-old Derek Benson, who was hacked to death with a sword at his flat at Sandy Hill Avenue in Ballymun, Dublin, in May 2000.

She was helped by 24-year-old Paul Hopkins from Sillogue Avenue, who was also jailed for life.

In the stand, Jacqui Noble sobbed uncontrollably as she outlined 14 years of abuse.

Following her father's death and her mother's imprisonment, Kelly Noble was taken into care by the authorities.

She later moved to the Seaview Estate in Laytown, Co Meath, after giving birth.

In the Central Criminal Court, she denied murdering Emma McLoughlin outside Pat's supermarket in Laytown on June 2 2006, but a jury found her guilty of manslaughter.

The court heard she had gone to the supermarket with her son in a buggy to get groceries, when she was approached by Emma McLoughlin who accused her of kicking her in the stomach while pregnant.

She told detectives Ms McLoughlin "busted" her nose in the supermarket.

She then made a phone call to her friend and child minder Niamh Cullen and asked her to bring a knife down to the scene.

Niamh Cullen was seen arriving at the supermarket on CCTV. She admitted carrying the kitchen knife in a child's schoolbag to the scene, along with Ms Noble's daughter.

Noble, who had a heroin problem, said she had been afraid she would get her head kicked in and told gardai: "It was self-defence, big time."

In February 2008, on appeal, her sentence was reduced to eight years with two suspended from the original 10 years with two suspended.

In prison Kelly Noble has had a chequered history.

With others, she tackled a prison officer who tried to prevent them getting their hands on an orange, packed with drugs, which had been thrown into the recreation area.

She was transferred out of the Dochas Centre to Limerick for a time after having a row with her mother.