‘This is not a whodunnit’, bog murder trial told

When murder-accused Ross Allen travelled to a remote bog lane with armed men to confront a man about a missing bag of drugs he knew violence was on the cards, a jury was told at the Central Criminal Court today.

Prosecution counsel Patrick Marrinan SC gave his closing argument in the trial of 22-year-old Ross Allen. Mr Allen, with an address in Carrickmines, Co Dublin has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Christy Daly, aged 47, at Bog Lane, Kilbride, Clara, Co Offaly, on December 29, 2013.

Mr Marrinan told the jury of five women and six men that the facts of the case are clear. “This is not a whodunnit. It is a matter of degrees of guilt,” he said.

“Ross Allen was engaged in an unlawful act to involve himself in an assault on Christy Daly. The issue you have to consider is what was in his contemplation. Was it intent to kill, or something lesser?”

He said Mr Allen had hidden drugs on the laneway and when he went to retrieve them at 2.30am on December 29 they were not there. The assumption was made that Mr Daly had taken them. Mr Allen reported the missing stash to the owner of the drugs and set in motion the events leading to Mr Daly’s death.

Mr Allen was told to keep lookout at the end of Bog Lane while two Dublin men went to Mr Daly’s caravan. The trial heard from state pathologist Marie Cassidy Mr Daly’s front teeth were knocked out and his nose broken before his killers shot him several times in the legs.

Justice Patrick McCarthy will begin his charge to the jury on Monday.