A 49-year-old man has been found not guilty of the manslaughter of a 40-year-old man while they were both using a soup kitchen on the street in Cork city.
Adrian Henry of Seminary Road, Blackpool in Cork had pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of James Duncan at Patrick Street in the city on September 12th, 2019. Mr Duncan was from Dunmore Gardens in Knocknaheeny on the north side of the city.
A jury of eight men and four women took just over an hour at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday to return with an unanimous verdict of not guilty. Presiding judge Helen Boyle thanked the jurors for the ‘diligence’ with which they performed their duties.
The defence in the case had said that that a guilty verdict would be a “major miscarriage of justice”.
The pathologist in the case, Dr Ben Ong, agreed with the defence that there were no bruises or external signs of assault on the body of the deceased. Dr Ong, who carried out the postmortem on Mr Duncan, also agreed with the defence that because of underlying conditions Mr Duncan would been susceptible to sustaining injury from any fall.
The trial heard that doctors at the Mercy University Hospital in Cork did not observe any external head injury. However, on admission Mr Duncan was found to be at the deepest level of coma.
Mr Ong indicated that Mr Duncan had been admitted to hospital a month earlier for a head injury and intracranial bleed but was discharged after observation.
The prosecution counsel at the trial, Ray Boland, SC, said that Mr Duncan was assaulted in a “sudden, violent and dangerous” manner.
“There was precious little preamble and it happened very quickly. Violent — a witness said she saw he was pushed forcefully to the ground and dragged on the road in the face of oncoming traffic and dropped.
“Being dragged in to traffic was the dangerous aspect. My view is that he suffered this subdural haematoma in the course of the assault.”
The jurors had heard the voice of the deceased as part of the evidence at the trial. Mr Duncan made a 999 call at 9.15pm on September 12th, 2019 where he told the operator that he had been attacked.
“I am after being attacked. He (the attacker) is still here. He beat the f**k out of me. I need help. No I don’t need an ambulance but I need help. Thank you.”