The trial of a father-of-four accused of murdering his best friend at his apartment in north Dublin has heard no motive was established for the shooting.

A number of black males, claiming to be friends of a 15-year-old Nigerian boy who was stabbed on Good Friday two years ago, were in a “highly agitated and aggressive state” when gardai arrived at the scene, a Central Court jury has heard.

Two Artane drug addicts who subjected a teenager to a terrifying ordeal because they mistakenly believed there might be drugs in his house have been given four year sentences at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A crack cocaine addict who pointed a gun at a gardaí who arrived at the scene of a robbery and who later spat blood at a garda has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for four armed raids and other offences.

An 18 year-old Cork man on trial for the rape and murder of a woman in 2000 told gardai that he was in the park "spinning around" on his motorbike at the time the attack took place.