More court reports in brief.
Trial of Sligo teacher collapses
The trial of a retired Sligo teacher for alleged indecent assault on pupils has collapsed during the hearing of evidence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Patrick McCartan discharged the jury following an application by defence counsel Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, after one of the complainants made a comment during his evidence.
The jury was sworn in last Wednesday for the trial and most of the time since then was taken up with legal discussions in the absence of the three women and nine men.
A new date will now be set for the trial.
The 65-year-old accused had pleaded not guilty to a total of 83 charges of indecently assaulting six males on dates unknown between 1968 and 1976 in a Sligo primary school.
Contract killing case continues
The trial of a Clare woman and an Egyptian poker dealer continued yesterday in legal argument at the Central Criminal Court.
Sharon Collins (45), Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, and Essam Eid (52), an Egyptian man with a Las Vegas address, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard between August 1st, 2006, and September 26th, 2006.
Ms Collins also denies hiring Mr Eid to shoot the three men.
Mr Eid denies demanding €100,000 from Robert Howard to cancel the contracts. He also denies breaking into the Howard family business at Westgate Business Park and stealing a number of items.
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and a jury of eight men and four women.
Man accused of prison murder
A jury has been sworn in at the Central Criminal Court for the trial of a 28-year-old man accused of committing murder in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin last year.
Declan O'Reilly, Parnell Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Derek Glennon at the prison on June 25th, 2007. The trial will begin tomorrow and is scheduled to last for one week.
Man admits M50 road death
A 21-year-old man is to be sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in relation to the death of a young woman in a car crash on the M50 last year.
Robert Carroll, Kilakee Way, Firhouse, Dublin, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Louise Blacoe (20) on the M50 southbound at Shankill on March 23th, 2007.
Carroll was remanded on continuing bail until his sentence date in November.
Sentence raised for stabbing
The Court of Criminal Appeal has increased from one to five years the jail sentence imposed on a Dublin man for stabbing another man in an unprovoked attack.
Gavin Guinan-Cahill was found to have two knives strapped to his leg at the time of the attack, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said.
Guinan-Cahill (30), Lissadel Road, Drimnagh, had pleaded guilty last December to assaulting Darren Ward, contrary to the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, at Drimnagh on September 25th, 2005.
He received a three-year sentence with the final two suspended.
The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the sentence.
Yesterday the three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal upheld the appeal and imposed an eight-year sentence, with the final three years suspended.
Pieter Le Vert, for the DPP, argued the sentencing judge had erred by giving insufficient weight to the fact the injuries Mr Ward sustained were inflicted with a knife, that Cahill had 29 previous convictions, and the attack was unprovoked.