Jury fail to reach verdict in firearms trial

A Central Criminal Court jury retired to a hotel tonight after failing to reach a verdict in the trial of a Dublin man charged with firearms offences.

Mark Desmond (27) formaly of Lally Road, Ballyfermot, has pleaded not guilty to unlawful possession of firearms with intent to endanger life at Lally Road, Ballyfermot between 1 October 1999 and 17th February 2000.

In his closing speech, Mark Desmond, defending himself, claimed that the testimony of the chief prosecution witness Jonathon Desmond was "all lies".

Jonathon Desmond had alleged in evidence that the accused showed him firearms in the back garden of a house in Lally Road.

The accused said: "people will tell lies when it's a self serving lie. The easiest thing to do is to blame someone else".

Other witnesses - who previously made statements implicating the accused -

were telling the truth when they retracted those statements in court, Mr Desmond told the jury.

He said the "ring of truth" was that none of these witnesses had ever been charged, even though they had also implicated themselves: "That's because they made false statments. And that's why I got them put in the witness box because I knew they were telling lies."

The court has heard that the accused was charged with the murders of Darren Carey and Patrick Murray whose bodies were recovered from the Grand Canal in January 2000. However, the DPP dropped the charges the day the trial was due to begin and the accused was re-arraigned on four counts of firearms.

Charging the jury, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie reminded jurors that the accused was not on trial for drugs or murder. The only charges they must consider are the firearms charges before the court.

Because the accused was defending himself "his role has been as an advocat in this case. As such, Mr Justice McKechnie warned, any "remarks, comments, suggestions" or "I told you so" the accused made during the course of the trial must be disregarded.

The jury continues its deliberations tomorrow..