A chip-van owner was yesterday acquitted of the manslaughter of a woman employee who was overcome by carbon monoxide fumes from a generator he had put in the cab of his van beside her.
Mr John O'Driscoll (57), from Phale, Ballineen, Co Cork, was found not guilty of unlawfully killing Ms Norma Murphy (18) in Skibbereen on April 19th, 1998, when Judge Patrick Moran directed the jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to acquit him.
Ms Murphy was found unconscious in the cab of Mr O'Driscoll's chip van after being overcome by carbon monoxide fumes, and the State had argued Mr O'Driscoll was reckless in putting a generator which gave off the fumes into the cab with Ms Murphy.
Following legal argument by Mr Sean O Donnabhain, defending, who successfully argued that Mr O'Driscoll was not aware of the seriousness of the risk involved in placing the generator in the cab, the judge ordered the jury to acquit.
Ms Murphy, from Ballineen, worked regularly with Mr O'Driscoll but was not working that night and had just come along for the spin. She had gone to sit in the cab while waiting for others to finish up but had offered to help if things got busy.
Attempts to revive Ms Murphy with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation at the scene were unsuccessful. She was later attended by a local doctor before being rushed to Bantry Hospital where she was pronounced dead at 5 a.m.