Ciprian Grozavu murder conviction overturned, retrial ordered

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

Ciprian Grozavu had his murder conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal on 25 July 2016, with a retrial ordered. The conviction concerned Jonathan Duke’s murder in Bandon, Co Cork, and followed an eleven-day Central Criminal Court trial in 2013. The appeal court found that the trial judge’s response to a jury question about manslaughter could have confused jurors and made the verdict unsafe. Grozavu had been sentenced to life imprisonment after a unanimous murder conviction. The ruling records that his defence was that Ms O’Connor killed Mr Duke without his participation, although he helped dispose of the body.