Stephen Tynan and Raymond Fitzgerald await murder verdict

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

Stephen Tynan and Raymond Fitzgerald were on trial for murder at the Central Criminal Court. Both men had pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Tynan’s cousin, Andrew Guerrine, at an unknown place between 22 and 23 May 2015.

The proceedings were reported on 21 November 2018. The jury began deliberating that afternoon and was due to resume on Thursday, 22 November.

The trial heard that Mr Guerrine’s body was found in the early hours of 23 May on Steelstown Lane in Rathcoole, 10km from where he was last seen alive in Tallaght. He had sustained 20 stab wounds.

Prosecutor Brendan Grehan said there was circumstantial evidence proving the men’s guilt, although there was no DNA evidence, murder weapon or eyewitness testimony connecting them to the killing. Mr Fitzgerald’s barrister said the suspicious circumstances attributed to him could be explained by his being an accessory after the fact. Mr Tynan’s barrister said he might have become involved in the aftermath. Both lawyers sought an acquittal.

Mr Justice Michael White told the jury it could find either man guilty, not guilty but guilty of assisting an offender, or acquit him. He explained the alternative verdict of being an accessory after the fact and noted that the prosecution alleged murder and did not contend for the alternative.