Cold case murder trial adjourned due to juror’s illness

A juror’s illness has led to the adjournment of the cold case trial of a Cork man charged with murdering a mother-of-three, whose body was found dumped in a wooded area 42 years ago.

UK forensic scientist Dr Jonathan Paul Whitaker, who developed a DNA profile from material recovered from the body of victim Nora Sheehan, had begun to give his direct evidence in the trial of Noel Long on Friday when a juror took ill.

Adjourning the trial on Friday afternoon, Mr Justice Paul McDermott told the remaining 10 jurors that as one of their colleagues was unwell, he would adjourn the case until Monday to give that ill juror an opportunity to recover.

Last Tuesday, the jury of 12 was reduced to 11 when a juror handed the judge up a note which led to him being discharged. The trial judge told the remaining jurors that as a result of information having been conveyed to him it was appropriate that their fellow juror would no longer serve and that they would continue to hear the evidence in the case as a jury of 11.

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Noel Long (74) with an address at Maulbawn, Passage West, Co. Cork has pleaded not guilty to murdering Nora Sheehan (54) between June 6th and June 12th, 1981, at an unknown place within the State. Her body was found by forestry workers at The Viewing Point, Shippool Woods, in Cork six days after she went missing.

The jury has heard that the pathologist who carried out the postmortem on Mrs Sheehan found bruising in the anterior wall of her vagina, and it showed the presence of spermatozoa. Dr Robert Dermot Coakley conducted the postmortem on Mrs Sheehan on June 13th, 1981 but died shortly after carrying out the examination.

Evidence has also been given that material recovered from Mrs Sheehan had to be sent to the UK in 2008 to generate a DNA profile, as Ireland lacked the techniques to interpret low amounts of DNA at the time.

Dr Jonathan Paul Whitaker from Forensic Science Services (FSS) in the UK on Friday told Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, that he has specialised in DNA profiling for over 30 years. The witness said he had prepared a report in the case on May 9th, 2022, which contained information from an evaluation of work done in 2008, and also comparison work carried out in May 2022 on foot of an email from Dr Kristen O’Connor, which had included a profile of a black beanie hat.

Dr Kristen O’Connor from Forensic Science Ireland has already testified that she received five items belonging to Mr Long for DNA on December 1st, 2021, and one of these was a black beanie hat.

Dr Whitaker said the vaginal swab slide recovered from the body of Mrs Sheehan was tested in a laboratory in Birmingham in 2008 and his opinion was peer reviewed by another scientist and no disagreements were noted.

Dr Brid Martina McBride, from Forensic Science Ireland (FSI), told the jury on Thursday that she sent a vaginal swab slide recovered from the body of Mrs Sheehan to Dr Whitaker in November 2008 for DNA profiling as he was an expert in this area.

The trial broke for lunch at 1.20pm today but when the jurors returned to the court after 2pm they were told by the judge that one of their colleagues was not well and that the trial would be adjourned.

The trial continues on Monday before the judge and a jury of seven men and four women, when Dr Whitaker will continue giving his direct evidence.

In his opening address, Mr Grehan told the jury that Dr Whitaker had developed a DNA profile from semen recovered from the body of Mrs Sheehan. In November 2021 he said material from Mr Long was obtained by gardaí, which was analysed in the forensic science lab.

“Results from their analysis were sent to Dr Whitaker and he will say it matched the semen recovered from Mrs Sheehan’s vagina. Using the calculation tools, the possibility that it originated from someone other than Mr Long is one in 20,000 provided they are unrelated to him,” said the barrister.