A youth who shattered his sister's skull with a cricket bat faces a possible retrial for her murder after a jury last night failed to agree on a verdict in his case.
The 17-year-old schoolboy, Bryn Boothby, who admits his sister Tara's manslaughter but denies her murder, was freed on bail by Mr Justice Coghlin, given the "stress" of the trial.
During the two-week Antrim Crown Court case the schoolboy, who claimed he loved his 18-year-old sister, said he had lost control as they argued over her decision to leave college.
He admitted that during the heated row he hit Tara over the head twice with his cricket bat as she sat watching television in the living-room of their Fortsandel Avenue home in Coleraine on May 19th last year.