Judge refuses request to change plea

An application by a new age traveller to change his plea for manslaughter on a campsite in Leitrim in 1998 from guilty to not guilty was refused today at the Central Criminal Court.

Earlier this month, Keith Cooper (aged 25), with an address at Gortimar, Manorhamilton was due to be sentenced for the manslaughter of Elliot Colin Double, otherwise known as Elliot Robertson, at a campsite on the mountainside at Boihy, Co Leitrim on October 6 1998.