Kelly jury fails to reach verdict on main charge

The jury in the trial of anti-war activist Mary Kelly was last night discharged after failing to reach a verdict on the main charge of causing criminal damage to a US navy plane at Shannon during the build-up to the war against Iraq.

She had used the defence of lawful excuse. But the judge said there would be social anarchy if people took the law into their own hands.

Kelly (50), formerly of the Peace Camp in Shannon, was cheered by supporters as she walked free from Ennis Circuit Court after the jury failed to reach a decision after almost five hours of deliberation.

At 8.30 p.m. last night the forewoman of the jury told Judge Carl Moran that there was no agreement as to whether Kelly was guilty of the charge of criminal damage and that the jury would not benefit from any more time on the question.

The jury forewoman made her comments an hour after telling the judge that the jury was close to a decision in relation to the criminal damage charge.

She said the jury had returned a guilty verdict in relation to the lesser trespass charge against Kelly.

Kelly denied the criminal damage of a US navy plane at Shannon on January 29th last.

Judge Moran said that the DPP will now have to decide as to whether or not to proceed with a new trial and remanded Kelly on continuing bail.

Earlier in his charge to the jury Judge Moran said that if everyone acted like Kelly there would be social chaos. "If people are allowed to express their political views by damaging property it would not be long before there would be mob rule and rioting in the streets."

He said that on the night Kelly took the law into her own hands and if everyone pursued their political views with the best of motives and damaged property there would be social anarchy.

Judge Moran said there was a lot of politics in the case. However, he said that politics had nothing to do with the case and is irrelevant to the matter at hand.

Judge Moran said at times it seemed that the US government was on trial and not Mary Kelly.

He said it was not a case of the US government and Mary Kelly or George Bush and Mary Kelly or the Garda and Mary Kelly, it was a case of the people of Ireland and Mary Kelly.

Judge Moran said that Kelly's defence of lawful excuse does not fall within the ambit of the relevant section of the act.

In his closing argument Mr Brendan Nix SC, defending, said: "I would suggest that the overwhelming moral responsibility in life is to protect life and that is what Mary Kelly was trying to do on January 29th."

Mr Nix said Kelly is a courageous and special person. "I don't know if her action saved one Iraqi child but she tried out of respect for international law and to protect Iraqi life and property.

"Mary Kelly is not here because she had nothing better to do, but because she wanted to save life."

However, Mr Stephen Cough- lan BL, prosecuting, acknowledged that Mary Kelly is a lady of fortitude "but on January 29th last she went a step too far.

"She took the law into her own hands to deliberately damage a US plane which cost $1.5 million to repair."