Witness interrupted during video-link evidence in Aaron Brady trial

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

A witness giving evidence from her New York home was interrupted by an unseen man during Aaron Brady’s murder trial on 12 June 2020. The proceedings were reported on 12 June 2020.

Brady had pleaded not guilty to murdering Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe and to robbing €7,000 in cash and cheques. The charges related to events at Lordship Credit Union in Co Louth on 25 January 2013.

Molly Staunton was being questioned by prosecution counsel Brendan Grehan SC about what Brady had said in her presence in June or July 2016. A male voice told her to stop her testimony, and the video feed appeared to be cut off. Mr Justice Michael White asked the jury to leave; when it returned, Staunton said her apartment was empty and she was happy to proceed.

Staunton initially said she could not remember whether Brady had admitted killing a garda. After Grehan played a recording of her statement to gardaí on 29 August 2017, she said she stood by it and that Brady had said he killed a garda.

Asked by defence counsel Fiona Murphy SC about the interruption, Staunton said the person was a friend she was staying with and that she had closed her computer herself because she wanted privacy. She also said she remembered both Brady’s alleged remark and telling gardaí about it. The judge told the jury to return on Tuesday afternoon.

This case may have concluded differently. The outcome has not yet been confirmed by a public source we could find.