Jury in murder case retires to consider verdict

The jury has retired to consider a verdict in the case of 54-year-old army sergeant John Crerar, who denies the murder of Kildare woman, Phyllis Murphy, almost 23 years ago.

The jury of six women and six men retired shortly after half four this afternoon, following an address from trial judge, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie.

John Crerar, aged 54, a father-of-five of Woodside Park, Kildare, has denied the murder of Philomena Murphy, aged 23, who was known as Phyllis, on a date unknown between December 22 1979 and January 18 1980 within the state.

At the time of her death, Phyllis Murphy was living in digs in Rathangan, Co Kildare. Her body was found, naked and strangled, in Co Wicklow on January 18 1980. The state pathologist found injuries consistent with rape.

The prosecution alleges that DNA from semen samples extracted from the body of Phyllis Murphy matched DNA from blood samples voluntarily given by John Crerar to gardaí.

It has also called former co-workers of John Crerar who alleged that he did not turn up for work at the times he says on the night Phyllis Murphy disappeared.

The defence argues that the jury should disregard the changed evidence of the former co-workers as unreliable.

It also argues that the risk of a mistake or of a chance match of DNA was too high for the jury to convict Mr Crerar on the DNA evidence alone.

Mr Justice McKechnie told the jury it must resolve the "major conflict of evidence" between John Crerar and his former co-worker Paddy Bolger.

He told the jury the only DNA evidence it should consider was that of two forensic scientists, Dr Maureen Smyth of the Forensic Science Laboratory, and a British expert, Dr Matthew Greenhalgh.