Warren Dumbrell murder conviction overturned, retrial ordered

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

Warren Dumbrell’s murder conviction was set aside as unsafe by the Court of Criminal Appeal on 5 July 2010. The court granted leave to appeal, treated the application as the appeal and ordered a retrial on the murder charge.

The court delivered its reasons on 28 July 2010 in a judgment delivered by Murray C.J. The appeal panel also included McKechnie J. and Dunne J.

Warren Dumbrell and his brother Jeffrey Dumbrell had each been convicted of murdering Christopher Cawley at Inchicore, Dublin, on 29 October 2006. Their trial before a judge and jury at the Central Criminal Court lasted 10 days, and each received a mandatory life sentence. Both murder convictions were set aside and retrials ordered.

Warren Dumbrell had also been found not guilty of a separate charge of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to another person.

The court found that statements made and published in connection with a lecture delivered by the trial judge during the trial could prejudice the jury. It concluded that the danger or real possibility of a juror being influenced could not have been avoided by a direction, rendering the verdicts unsafe.

This report covers an earlier stage of the case. Later developments are not reported here.