Jury retires in O'Reilly murder trial

A jury hearing the murder trial of a Dublin man accused of murdering an Arklow 21-year-old by hitting him with his car has retired to consider their verdicts.

Anthony O’Reilly, aged 22, with an address at Cleggan Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin, is charged with the murder of Daniel McDonald, aged 21, on Main Street, Arklow on February 2, 2007.

O’Reilly has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr McDonald, dangerous driving causing the death of Mr McDonald and intentionally or recklessly grabbing the steering wheel of Jenny Tobin’s car causing it to swerve in the direction of Mr McDonald.

Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins sent the jury to consider their verdicts at 4.05pm telling them to consider the evidence coldly, dispassionately and clinically.

The six men and six women have 13 days of evidence to consider including CCTV footage from inside Arklow’s Rascals Disco, where the two men had been fighting, and from Arklow’s Main Street where the incident happened.

The court has heard the men had been fighting in Rascals and were thrown out with the fight continuing on the street.

Witnesses said O’Reilly ran to a black car driven by Jenny Tobin and jumped in the passenger seat on top of Miss Tobin’s friend Samantha Earls, while Mr McDonald kicked at him through the window.

Witnesses said Mr McDonald got his foot stuck in the window and the car drove off with Mr McDonald hanging from it.

He fell free and the car drove off, but it came back a short time later, witnesses saying it swerved towards Mr McDonald who was standing near the footpath.

It is alleged O’Reilly had reached over and grabbed the steering wheel from Miss Tobin forcing the car in Mr McDonald’s direction.

The court has heard O’Reilly then saw his friend Keith Ennis driving his own red Honda Civic, and got out of Miss Tobin’s car and into his own.

Witnesses said they saw the red Honda Civic driving at speed down the town’s main street doing a three-point turn and coming back up the street hitting Mr Mc Donald who had walked out on to the road.

Witnesses have said O’Reilly was acting like the antichrist outside the nightclub saying it was "f***en" war and claiming they did not know who they were messing with.

The court heard he told Miss Tobin to "drive the f***en car" when he got into it bashing the dashboard and later asked her to take him to a friend's house to get a shotgun.

Witnesses said they saw his red car swerve to hit Mr McDonald and it was 100% on the wrong side of the road.

The defence claims Mr McDonald and his friends were the aggressors in the fight and O’Reilly was fleeing for his life.

The jury have also been asked to consider expert evidence called by the defence, which outlined driver response times and suggested O’Reilly would have had to have reacted very quickly to avoid Mr McDonald on the road.

The trial continues.