A Dublin man who got involved in a fight to protect his friend has been acquitted of the murder of a father of two by a jury at the Central Criminal Court.
The jury of seven women and five men took just under two hours to find Peter Dolan (42), Tulip Court, Darndale, not guilty of murdering Raymond Brown during a disturbance at Clonshaugh Drive in Coolock on April 2nd, 2005.
They also found Mr Dolan not guilty of assaulting Emmett Taaffe on the same occasion.
During the trial the jury heard that the night's events started at about midnight on April 1st.
Tone Taaffe, younger brother of Emmett Taaffe, returned early from work to discover some teenagers had gathered outside his house. They had earlier behaved in a threatening manner towards his father-in- law.
Mr Taaffe went to chase the youths away with a baseball bat but was himself attacked and hit in the head with a crutch.
He called Emmett, who had spent the night at a local GAA club benefit with his friend, Mr Brown.
Emmett called another brother, Pádraig, who came to collect him and Mr Brown.
They drove to Clonshaugh Drive near their brother's house where Emmett Taaffe and Mr Brown got out of the car and walked towards the group. One or both of them was carrying a bat.
Mr Taaffe told the court that he was swinging the bat around him indiscriminately and that he hit Gary Courtney.
Mr Dolan had spent the evening in his local pub with his wife and his friend, Noel Courtney, Gary Courtney's father. As they were walking home, they came across the fighting.
Mr Courtney went to defend his son. When he in turn was attacked, Mr Dolan ran into the nearby house where he grabbed a knife by the sink in the kitchen and went back outside.