Detective Garda Adrian Donohue murder trial delayed after jurors drop out

The trial of a man accused of the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohue seven years ago has been delayed after three jurors dropped out.

Det Gda Donohoe was a member of An Garda Síochána on active duty when he was killed on January 25th, 2013 at Lordship Credit Union, Bellurgan, Co Louth.

Aaron Brady replied “not guilty” when charged with the murder on Monday.

The 28-year-old from New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh also replied “not guilty” to a charge of robbing approximately €7,000 in cash and assorted cheques from Pat Bellew on the same date and at the same location.

A specially enlarged jury of 15 people was sworn in at the Central Criminal Court on Monday due to the expected length of Mr Brady’s trial, which is set to last until May 28th.

On Tuesday morning three of those jurors informed the court they could not commit to the 16 weeks. Two had employment issues and one had misremembered the date of a family event.

Mr Justice Michael White recalled Monday’s jury panel to allow for three replacement jurors to be selected. He warned the replacement jurors they had to be “100 per cent sure” they could serve for the full length of the trial.

It took over an hour to find replacement jurors. Several were excused as they had connections to Co Louth. One woman was excused because she was the manager of a Credit Union.

The trial is expected to begin on Tuesday afternoon with an opening speech from the prosecution.

Mr Justice White warned the panel not to allow themselves to be sworn onto the jury if they had a difficulty in serving, as that would cause “serious difficulties” for the court.

The judge said the trial will break for two weeks at Easter and will not sit on the St Patrick’s Day public holiday.

He said there will also be breaks when he will deal with legal matters in the absence of the jury. He added: “That may suit self-employed people, who I would hope would consider sitting on the jury.”

He said he was conscious it would be a long trial, but added: “The director [Director of Public Prosecutions] and defence and the Court are anxious to get a cross-section of jurors from all walks of life and I would ask you to consider serving for those reasons.”

Mr Justice White said jurors must be impartial and asked them to let him know if they are aware of publicity and media coverage that might affect their impartiality. He further stated that anyone from the Carlingford area, including Louth, Newry and south Armagh, should not serve because witnesses in the trial are from those areas.

He further explained that 15 people would be selected but only 12 would take part in the final deliberations. The extra jurors are there in case someone is forced to drop out through illness or any other reason. If more than 12 jurors remain at the end of the trial there will be an open ballot to decide the final make-up of the jury, Mr Justice White said.

Mr Justice White warned jurors not to look on social media or to research anything on the internet relating to the trial as they are only to pay attention to the evidence in court.