A 37-year-old Dublin man, described by his own barrister as "a rough diamond", has been cleared of murdering the man he was being paid to protect.

The jury in the trial of a man accused of killing a drug dealer today failed to reach a verdict.

The man accused of a gangland style murder in a pub in Inchicore, Dublin, claimed in an interview shortly after the shooting that he was in Tallaght eating steak at the time.