Nally to hear verdict in manslaughter case appeal

CO MAYO farmer Padraig Nally will find out today if he has been successful in an appeal against his conviction for the killing of a man on his land two years ago.

The Court of Criminal Appeal will issue its ruling this morning on an appeal by the 62-year-old farmer against his conviction for the manslaughter of John ‘Frog’ Ward at his home at Funshinaugh, Cross, Co Mayo, on October 14, 2004.

Nally is serving a six-year prison sentence for the crime after he was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court last year of the unlawful killing of Ward.

During an appeal hearing in July, lawyers for Nally argued that the original trial judge, Mr Justice Paul Carney, had erred in law by not allowing the jury to consider that the farmer had acted in self-defence.

They pointed out that Nally could have been acquitted of the charge of causing Mr Ward’s death if it had been allowed to consider the justification that he had acted to protect himself.

Nally’s legal team claims that the consideration of self-defence as a legal defence should have rested with the jury and not with the trial judge.

However, Mr Justice Carney had directed that the jury at the Central Criminal Court last year could only bring in a verdict of either guilty of murder or guilty of manslaughter after Nally admitted he was responsible for the fatal shooting of Mr Ward — a 42-year-old father-of-11 from the Carrowbrowne halting site in Galway city.

The judge admitted that the decision on the length of prison sentence to impose on Nally was the hardest he had to face in 14 years as a member of the judiciary.

It also became one of the most high-profile trials in recent years due to the level of public interest in a case which focused on the fears of people living in isolated, rural parts of the country of becoming the victims of crime.

It also highlighted underlying tensions which exist between the Traveller and settled communities in some parts of Ireland.