Jury considers verdict in cut-throat case

A jury has retired to consider a verdict in the case of a Dublin man who admits a cut-throat killing but denies that it was murder.

In the Central Criminal Court, John Cleary, aged 24, of St Mark’s Avenue, Clondalkin, Dublin admitted beating and then fatally stabbing Kenneth Foley, aged 45, at Jamestown Court in Inchicore but he pleaded not guilty to murder.

Mr Foley, a single man with an address at Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore, was found with his throat cut on the steps of the ‘old folks complex’ at Jamestown Court in the early hours of January 15, 1999.

The jury retired shortly after 4pm today. Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins directed that there were two verdicts open to it: murder or manslaughter.