Jury in Nally trial sequestered to hotel
The jury in the manslaughter trial of Mayo farmer Padraig Nally has been sent to a hotel for the night after failing to reach a verdict at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today.
The jury of eight men and four women heard closing speeches from both sides and was told by the judge to approach the case in a cold, clinical and dispassionate fashion. They had been deliberating for three and a half hours before being sent to the hotel.
Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins said the jurors should not decide the case on sympathy for Mr Nally or their views on Travellers or out of sympathy with the Ward family who had lost a father. He said this was “a hard thing to do” because of a lot of publicity and strong feelings around the case.
62-year-old Mr Nally from Funshinaugh, Cross, Claremorris, Co Mayo, has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Traveller John ‘Frog’ Ward on October 14, 2004.
The victim, a father of 11, died at the scene after being shot twice and beaten with a stick.
Prosecution counsel Mr Paul O’Higgins SC told the jury that much of the evidence heard in the case, other than forensic evidence, comes from Padraig Nally himself and the statements he made in interviews after the killing.
He said Mr Nally was only innocent if the jury believed he had killed John Ward in self defence and judged objectively from the standpoint of someone in Mr Nally’s position, used no more force than was reasonably necessary to protect his own life. If more force was used, then he said he was guilty of manslaughter.
He added: “Whatever sympathy you might feel or not feel, this was not seen by Padraig Nally as a killing in defence.”
He said Mr Nally had been focusing on the longer term as he was “seeking to put Mr Ward out of circulation and to ensure he would not again plague Mr Nally.”
He said the deceased had been trying to get away at the time of the killing and Mr Nally was determined not to allow him to escape.
Counsel for the defence Mr Brendan Grehan SC said the prosecution had referred “umpteen times” in closing speeches to the fact that there had been a previous trial in which Padraig Nally was cleared of murder. He said: “The prosecution had a nerve even referring to that fact.”
He said in an altercation in which an intruder came into your home you are typically most at risk of finishing off the worst.
He said perhaps the most important witness in the case had been Patricia Carney who said she heard two shots 90 seconds apart, a space of time in which there was no way anybody could work out the options or rationalise how to proceed.
“On the fateful day John Ward met his death Mr Nally didn’t stir outside his doorway looking for trouble. Trouble came to him.”
He said: “If you act reasonably in self defence you are entitled to acquittal and what is reasonable is determined by the jury.”
He said Mr Nally’s perception of John Ward and his son Tom was that he would be killed and he acted in a “primeval manner.”
“Help might as well have been on the moon from his point of view,” he told the jury.
In other earlier evidence a garda ballistics expert said the fatal shot which killed Mr Ward was "no greater" than five yards away.
Detective Garda Thomas Carey also told the court that a second gunshot wound to Mr Ward's hip was fired from a distance no greater than four yards.
He said total of 40 cartridges were recovered from the house of the defendant and surrounding areas.
He also told prosecution counsel John Jordan BL that he found bloodstains on areas of a grass verge beside the road and heavy blood staining on the backdoor of the house and on the door frame, suggesting the door was open when this had occurred.
The defence called one witness Dr Sheila O’Sullivan, a psychiatrist who had treated John Ward at the University Hospital in Galway where he had been a day patient on the day he died. She told Mr Brendan Grehan SC that he spoke of being involved in a number of fights over the years. He had been fighting from a young age including bare knuckle boxing fights between his family and others.
In one incident she agreed he had spoken of holding a man by his neck until he turned blue and went limp. He survived but he felt he had almost killed him. In another incident a man who he threw a cup at required 18 stitches. He had been due in court the day after the killing for allegedly threatening a garda with a slash hook.
She said Mr Ward had also had his throat cut using a Stanley knife and said if he ever met the man who had done that to him, he would kill him.
Dr O’Sullivan said he admitted to her he was quite aggressive and in recent times had been frightened about what he would do to people. He was also paranoid and afraid people might attack him.
However the witness told counsel for the prosecution: “I personally did not feel intimidated or frightened by him.”
The jury will resume its deliberations at 10.30am tomorrow morning.
