Jury to resume deliberations in Reilly trial tomorrow

The jury in the trial of a former solider accused of the murder of an 18 month infant were sent to a hotel this evening after failing to reach a verdict.

Mr Justice Paul Carney sent the jury of six men and six women to a hotel after they had spent more than five hours deliberating on a verdict.

He told the jury at 4.30 pm that they could reach a 11 – 1 or 10 – 2 majority verdict after the jury foreman told him they had not yet reached a unanimous verdict. The jury will resume their deliberations at 11 am tomorrow.

John Reilly (32) of Crooksling, Brittas Co Dublin denies murdering Oisin Reilly-Murphy (18 months) of Manor Kilbride, Co Wicklow on 5th June 2000 at Kiltalown Road, Jobstown, Tallaght, Co Dublin.

The defence is that of sane automatism, whereby a person with no history of psychiatric disturbance commits a purposeless act of which there is no memory. Earlier in the trial, an expert medical witness told the court that sleepwalking, night terrors or a combination of both may have caused Mr Reilly's actions. The sleep disorders could have been trigged by heavy amounts of alcohol.

During the thirteen day trial the accused man, John Reilly was asked: "Have you accepted with certainty that you killed Oisin?" "Yes" he replied.

Mr Reilly told the jury he had great respect for the child's parents, his cousin, Mr Tommy Reilly, and partner Ms Grainne Murphy, for the way they had coped since Oisin's death. "Their ability to talk to me...to look at me. They're solid people," he said.

The court has heard that the infant was stabbed to death in the sitting room of Mr Hugh Reilly's house (Tommy Reilly's brother). The accused and the child's parents had stayed overnight there and had spent the evening drinking and playing cards. John Reilly was home on leave from Iraq, where he had been working as a UN sanctions inspector. Some years earlier, he completed two tours of duty in the Lebanon while a member of the Irish Army Ranger Wing.