The Court of Criminal Appeal has overturned the conviction of a man for the murder of his sister's partner. The three-judge court directed a retrial in the case of Mr Nicholas Donnelly.
In March 2004, a Central Criminal Court jury, returning a majority verdict, found Mr Donnelly (29), Talbot Green, Wexford, guilty of the murder of Gordon Farrell (20) at Mr Farrell's home at Bernadette Place, Wexford, on September 23rd, 2001. Mr Donnelly had denied the charge.
The trial had been told that Mr Farrell was living with Mr Donnelly's sister. Mr Donnelly said Mr Farrell died in a fight that broke out after he stopped Mr Farrell hitting Ms Donnelly.
Allowing Mr Donnelly's appeal yesterday, Ms Justice McGuinness said the main ground of appeal was that the trial judge had erred in law in refusing to allow the defence of self-defence be considered by the jury.
The trial judge had only allowed the defence of provocation to go to the jury, which clearly rejected it and convicted.
It seemed to the appeal court that one had to take into account in particular the statements of Mr Donnelly and of his sister and other minor witnesses and the general description of what evolved in the house at the time.
Having referred to the evidence, the judge said the fact that the fight arose out of an attack by Mr Farrell on Ms Donnelly seemed significant.