The jury in the Stardust inquests will begin a seventh day of deliberations on Thursday, having retired on Wednesday evening. They have now spent 24 hours over six days considering their verdicts.
At about 3pm on Wednesday, the seven women and five men jurors asked two questions of Dublin coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, around the definition of “standards” in 1981 and as to whether their answer to one of the questions before them could imply wrongdoing or failure.
She will provide answers on Thursday, she said.
Following 122 days of hearings, the jury are considering verdicts in respect of each of the 48 young people who died in a fire in the Stardust nightclub fire in the early hours of February 14th, 1981.
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They must establish the place, date and the cause of the 48 deaths and also return verdicts based on the circumstances of each death. The verdicts open to the jury are accidental, misadventure, unlawful killing, open and narrative verdicts.
In addition to finding verdicts in respect of each of the deceased the jurors are required to establish facts around the circumstances of the fire.
When charging the jurors last month Dr Cullinane said they must be “dispassionate” and “clinical”, and “put emotions aside”, adding they were “under no time pressure” to reach their conclusions.
Explaining the verdicts, she spent time detailing the parameters within which the jurors must confine themselves if considering a verdict of unlawful killing.
“You have heard evidence in this case about how certain things were done and how they might have been done differently. Some of that evidence sought to set out a particular version of events ... However, neither you nor I are allowed to record any conclusion ... which attaches criminal responsibility or civil responsibility to any person,” she said.
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