Jury considers verdict

THE JURY is expected to go out today to consider the evidence in the case of two brothers charged with the murder of a 30-year-old man found in the bedroom of a 15-year-old girl whom one of the accused had been dating.

Gerard O’Riordan (25) and Shane O’Riordan (19), from Arbutus Grove, Killarney, both deny the murder of James Brazier, known as English Jim, at a house in Pinewood Estate, Killarney, early on April 15th, 2007.

Yesterday at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, State counsel Michael Durack SC said it was the prosecution case that the two accused went to Shane O’Riordan’s former girlfriend’s house to find Mr Brazier and that they went down “to at least give him a good hiding. I suggest they were both in it together to attack.”

Counsel for Shane O’Riordan, Patrick MacEntee SC, said his client had, from the first time he spoke to gardaí, admitted that he had stabbed Mr Brazier but there was a defence available to him of provocation which, if successful, would lead to a manslaughter conviction.

Gerard O’Riordan’s counsel, Tom Creed SC, said there was no evidence against his client of using a knife on Mr Brazier and while he had admitted punching him and hitting him with a chair, there was no evidence these blows contributed in any way to his death.