Closing speeches conclude at Central Criminal Court BreakingNews.ie_6965

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Closing speeches concluded at the Central Criminal Court today in the trial of a 24-year-old Dublin man accused of murdering his 17-year-old girlfriend.
Mr Phillip Reddin, (aged 24),You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, originally from Donamore Park, Tallaght, Dublin and now of no fixed abode denies the murder of Niamh Murphy, who was originally from Galway at a house in Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge on May 10, 2002.
The trial has heard that the accused confessed to gardaí that he had strangled Ms Murphy and cut her throat during a violent row over his former girlfriend.
Closing for the prosecution,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, Mr Paul O'Higgins SC told the jury that Philip Reddin told the first garda he met after the killing "I can't wake up Niamh" even though she was dead at this time. After she was strangled, the accused carried out "the most vile and disgusting damage to Niamh Murphy".   
Counsel said the accused made statements in "close and artful detail" and this was not the action of a man who was remorseful over what had taken place.
Mr O'Higgins suggested to the jury that Philip Reddin's "partly exculpatory statements lack conviction".
Summing up for the defence, Mr Patrick Gageby SC agreed that the accused had told "a large number of lies".
"It would have been better if this man had come clean at the beginning and I agree that he did tell lies." However, counsel added,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, that does not mean that everything he said must be disbelieved.   
He suggested that a "clever, cunning homicidal" would have remained silent. He told the jury that what they are dealing with is murder or manslaughter.
While “emotion” may incline them towards murder, the facts are such that the killing was much more likely to have occurred in a row of the type referred to in evidence.  He concluded by telling the jury that Philip Reddin had not intended to kill or cause serious injury to Niamh Murphy.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy had told the trial it could not be excluded that Ms Murphy was still alive "but unconscious and unlikely to survive" when her throat was cut. She told the court there was evidence of manual strangulation as well as a 5-inch cutthroat injury.
Death was due to neck injuries, the combined effects of compression to the neck and the cutthroat injury.
Mr Paul Carney begins his charge to the jury today
Closing speeches conclude at Central Criminal Court You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login