Dean Evans, Edward McGrath and Sharif Kelly face murder retrial

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

Dean Evans, Edward McGrath and Sharif Kelly were ordered to face a murder retrial at the Special Criminal Court, reported on 23 January 2015. The trial collapsed after previously privileged material in a witness statement was disclosed, raising concerns about evidence disclosure and the defendants’ ability to cross-examine the witness. All three had pleaded not guilty to murdering Peter Butterly, who was shot dead in the car park of the Huntsman Inn in Gormanston, Co Meath, on 6 March 2013.

The court discharged itself as a jury and ordered a retrial. Evans and McGrath had also pleaded not guilty to firearm offences connected with the same incident. The report said the witness, David Cullen, had given evidence implicating the three men and was serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence for lesser offences.