Man pleads not guilty to murdering wife

A jury has been selected at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin to hear the trial of a man charged with murdering his wife on his 49th birthday in 2006.

Brian Kearney (aged 50) with an address at Carnroe, Knocknashee, Goatstown, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife Siobhan Kearney (aged 38) on February 28, 2006.

The body of Ms Kearney, a mother of one, was found at the house in Goatstown on Mr Kearney’s 49th birthday.

A jury of seven men and five women has been selected to hear the trial, but Mr Justice Barry White told them the case would not open until Wednesday morning because an edited version of the book of evidence needed to be produced for Kearney’s defence counsel, Mr Patrick Gageby SC.

Mr Justice White told the jury the state had an obligation to provide the court and defence a book known colloquially as the book of evidence that included what witnesses will be called, statements taken from witnesses and a list of exhibits.

In the present case he said the prosecution, led by Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, agreed there was some evidence in the book that should not properly be put before the jury.

He told the jury to return at 11am on Wednesday morning when the case will begin in courtroom three.

The trial continues.