Michael Furlong granted order blocking murder retrial

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

Michael Furlong was granted an order in the High Court prohibiting a retrial on the murder charge concerning Patrick Connors, in a judgment delivered by Kearns P. on 7 May 2015.

Furlong had been charged with murdering Patrick Connors, whose body was found in a communal stairway in Enniscorthy on the morning of 29 April 2011. The alleged murder was stated to have occurred on a date unknown between 28 and 29 April 2011.

His trial began in the Central Criminal Court on 14 November 2013, but the jury was discharged on 18 November after State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy questioned aspects of Deputy State Pathologist Dr. Khalid Jaber’s evidence on the cause of death. The defence pathologist, Dr. Declan Gilsenan, had disagreed significantly with Dr. Jaber and attributed the death to a combination of blood loss, alcohol and drug intoxication, and hypothermia; Dr. Jaber firmly disagreed with the defence propositions.

The High Court held that permitting a retrial in the circumstances would be oppressive and that the matter did not constitute a trial in due course of law. The proceedings were reported on 7 May 2015.