The mother of a missing teenage girl has said she plans to marry the man accused of murdering her son, following a stabbing incident, in North Dublin, in 2013.

Audrey Fitzpatrick (46) has said that she intends to marry Dave Mahon (43) before he stands trial for the murder of her son, Dean. Mahon is accused of murdering Dean however Fitzpatrick told the Daily Star “I love him. He is my rock. I will be proud to be his wife.”

"He knows I love the bones of him. He knows I would be lost without him. I would be dead without him.

"We will have an awful lot of well-wishers and we will have the other side, but we have to take the good with the bad.

"Everybody has their own opinion and they are entitled to it - but they have never walked in our shoes.

"Ninety-nine percent of people we have told said: 'Well, it's about time'.

"They know how much we love each other and how strong we are and how we have stuck together through everything and we always will, no matter what life throws at us.

"Nobody knows the number of times he has been there when I have been really ill."

Fitzpatrick, tragically came to  press attention previously due to her teenage daughter Amy’s disappearance. She was last seen in Malaga, Spain, on January 1 2008. She was 15 years old. Her mother launched an international campaign in search of her daughter and released a book on the topic, “Amy Fitzpatrick: Please Find My Daughter,” in 2012.

The bereaved mother had been engaged to Mahon for eight years. They had made plans to marry but put these on hold when Amy went missing.

She had planned to have her son Dean give her away at her wedding. She told the Star they had hoped that the wedding might “bring a little happiness” into their lives.

In the newspaper she is photographed wearing her engagement right next to a tattoo saying “Deano” on her hand.

Mahon said “It's just to have one happy day out of seven years.

"We've had the nightmare for the last seven years and we are having our little dream now."