The trial of a civil servant for the murder of her husband dramatically collapsed in the Central Criminal Court today after it emerged that certain material was not disclosed to the defence.

A Dublin man who was bludgeoned to death was possibly asleep at the time he was attacked, a garda ballistics expert has told a murder trial.

The son of a woman accused of murdering her husband has told her murder trial of constant rows between his parents and of his father’s drunkenness and violence towards the accused.

A civil servant in the Department of Justice has gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court for the murder of her husband at their Dublin home in 2002.

A 45-year-old woman has been remanded on bail charged with assaulting her husband, whose body was found in the bedroom of their Dublin home yesterday morning.