Aivars Sondors goes on trial for assisting an offender

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Aivars Sondors went on trial for assisting an offender at the Central Criminal Court on 19 June 2017. The charges relate to allegedly moving a body, cleaning a Drogheda house and disposing of material after Audrius Butkus was killed. Sondors pleaded not guilty to three counts, while his barrister said he admitted the acts but would rely on duress. The trial was expected to last seven days before Mr Justice Paul Coffey and a jury.

Marius Gaizutis had already been convicted of Mr Butkus’s murder. The prosecution alleged that Sondors helped impede Gaizutis’s apprehension or prosecution after the killing, including by taking the body to Mornington Beach.