THE JURY in the case of a financial adviser charged with laundering over £3 million which the State says was taken in the Northern Bank robbery resume their deliberations today. They were sent home last night without reaching a verdict.
The jury trying the case of Ted Cunningham at Cork Circuit Criminal Court spent some three hours yesterday afternoon considering the case against the 60-year-old financial adviser who denies 10 counts of moneylaundering.
Judge Con Murphy told the jury of seven men and five women at 6.30pm that he was sending them home for the evening and he asked them to gather again at 10.30am today at the courthouse in Washington Street, Cork to resume their deliberations in the case.
Judge Murphy, who spent over 11 hours summing up the case for the jury over the past three days, concluded his charge to them at 3.20pm yesterday with a warning that they must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt on each charge if they are to convict Mr Cunningham. “You, members of the jury, in assessing the evidence should have regard for what witnesses said and the demeanour of witnesses. Apply your own robust common sense in deciding the issue,” he said.
“There are 10 separate counts. You must consider each count separately. We require from you 10 separate and distinct verdicts. You may have considerable sympathy for various people in this case, but you have to put any such sympathy out of your mind.
“Approach this issue as dispassionately as you can. This is the people of Ireland against Mr Cunningham, not the Northern Bank against Mr Cunningham or the gardaí against Mr Cunningham. I require from you a unanimous verdict on each of the 10 charges.”
In reply to a question from the jury on money laundering, Judge Murphy said that in order to convict Mr Cunningham they had to be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that he possessed or used the money at issue and that he knew or believed it to be stolen.
