Evidence in Sondors trial described partner’s fear before killing

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

At Aivars Sondors’s trial on charges of assisting an offender, a neighbour testified that Marius Gaizutis’s partner came to her home on the evening of September 9, 2013, with her five children, crying and asking for help. The neighbour said the partner told her Gaizutis had threatened to kill her.

The neighbour said the family stayed in her house that night and left at 7am the next morning. Under cross-examination, she agreed that the partner was frightened and that the family were shaking. Sondors has admitted the alleged acts but pleaded not guilty to the three charges; his defence indicated that duress was for the jury to decide. The trial continued before Mr Justice Paul Coffey.