Two in custody until sentencing for Dale Creighton manslaughter

Two Dubliners have been remanded in custody to await sentencing for their part in the killing of a 20-year-old on a footbridge in Dublin.

Ross Callery and Gerard Stevens had pleaded guilty last week, along with three co-accused, to Dale Creighton's manslaughter.

The five had been on trial at the Central Criminal Court with two others, charged with murdering Mr Creighton almost three years ago. However the murder charges against the six men and one woman were dropped, after five pleaded guilty to manslaughter and the other two pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Dale Creighton was assaulted on New Year's morning 2014 at the footbridge over the Tallaght bypass between Saint Dominic's Road and Greenhills Road. The court heard that there had been an allegation that he had stolen a mobile phone.

The Tallaght man died in hospital the following day. The cause of his death was blunt force injury to his head and face.

The seven accused, who are in their 20s and from Tallaght, had all originally pleaded not guilty to murder.

They are 23-year-old Aisling Burke and 28-year-old David Burke, both with a current address at Beechpark, Collinstown, Co Westmeath; Graham Palmer (26) with a current address at Park Avenue, Portarlington, Co Laois; Ross Callery (23) currently of Gortlum Cottages, Brittas, Co Dublin; James Reid (26) currently of Glen Aoibhinn, Gorey, Co Wexford; Jason Beresford (23) with an address at Coill Diarmuida, Ard a' Laoi, Castledermot, Co Kildare; and Gerard Stevens (27) currently of Grosvenor Square, Rathmines in Dublin.

Each accused also initially pleaded not guilty to violent disorder at the footbridge. However Jason Beresford later pleaded guilty to the violent disorder charge.

All changed their pleas and had them accepted by the State last Tuesday on what would have been the 15th day of the trial.

All but David Burke had been on bail, and the State asked that the others would be remanded in custody.

The court granted Aisling Burke bail until sentencing and she remanded Stevens and Callery on bail until Monday morning, after their barristers requested seven more days to get their affairs in order. She remanded the others in custody for sentencing on December 19th.

Stevens and Callery, a new father, answered their bail this morning, and Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy remanded them in custody until sentencing.

“The court notes that, in respect of Mr Stevens, a medical report might be of assistance,” she said.

Both men embraced members of their families and gathered their belongings before being led away by prison officers.

Last week, mother-of-one Aisling Burke pleaded guilty to violent disorder at the bridge that New Year’s Morning.

Reid pleaded guilty to possession of a knife, which had a blade or which was sharply pointed, at the footbridge.

Palmer, Callery, Stevens, Beresford and David Burke pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter.

All murder charges were then dropped.