Murder trial of homeless man to resume before jury today

The trial of a homeless man accused of murdering a Dublin pensioner in his home will resume before a jury today, after the jurors were sent home again yesterday for a third day of legal argument.

Stephen Byrne (aged 36) has pleaded not guilty to killing 70-year-old William Traynor in his house on St Francis Terrace, Bow Street on June 17, 2007.

Firefighters found the elderly man badly beaten that evening, after being called to a small fire in his home. He died from his injuries two days later in Beaumont Hospital.

The trial before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of seven women and five men is in its second week.