THE jury in the trial of a publican charged with the murder of his wife and a child return to the Central Criminal Court this morning to resume consideration of their verdict.
The six men and six women were sent to a Dublin city centre hotel at 8 p.m. after failing to reach a verdict following 1 1/2 hours' deliberations.
They began their work at 6.15 p.m. after Mr Justice Carney completed his charge. He took more than five hours to review the evidence in the 47-day trial of Mr Frank McCann and outline the law to the jurors.
Mr McCann (36) has denied the murder of his wife, Esther (36), and 18-month-old Jessica who died in a fire at their home at Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham, on September 4th, 1992.
The trial has been told that Jessica was a blood relative of the defendant but not a child of his marriage to Esther. The prosecution has claimed that Mr McCann arranged the fire because he did not want to tell his wife why the Adoption Board had refused their application to adopt Jessica.
The jury has also heard that Mr McCann who owned The Cooperage Pub in Blessington, Co Wicklow, had complained to gardai of threatening phone calls to the pub and his home in the weeks before the fire.
In his charge to the jury yesterday, Mr Justice Carney said that as a matter of law there was no corroboration of the statement and interviews made by the defendant while in custody in Tallaght Garda Station between November 4th and 6th, 1992, and upon which the State was relying to prove its case.
He was obliged under Section 10 of the Criminal Procedures Act 1993 to direct the jury's attention to the absence of corroboration. The Oireachtas had not decided that uncorroborated confessions could not be relied upon but had directed judges to point out to juries the absence of corroboration.
The judge said the jury, having considered the absence of corroboration, was still entitled to act on the statements if they were satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that they could be relied upon.
He suggested the jury should adopt a three-step approach to the statements and interviews. They should first decide whether what was in the documents amounted to an admission to setting the fire at the McCann home.
The second step was to decide if what was noted in the interviews was said by Mr McCann and the third step was to decide if he did say what was contained in the statements, whether it was true.
Mr Justice Carney said the onus was on the prosecution to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. He told the jury they were concerned only with reaching a unanimous verdict.
The sum-up was concluded at about 5.45 p.m. The jury were then sent to their room while submissions were made. They were then recalled and the judge told them Mr McCann enjoyed the presumption of innocence unless and until that presumption was displaced by a verdict of guilty.
The accused had a right to silence and the jury could not draw any inferences from his not answering questions while in Garda custody.
The jury began considering their verdict at 6.12 p.m. They returned at 7.15 pm with a request to see the full statement of a Garda witness relating to a meeting with Mr McCann in October, 1992, and that request was granted.
The jury also inquired whether there was evidence of a phone call being made from Mr McCann's home to a pub in Blessington. The judge replied that this was not in evidence.
At 8 p.m. the judge recalled the jury and when the foreman said they had not reached a verdict, he directed they be sent to a hotel. The jury returns to court this morning.