Jury to consider verdict in Dunbar trial from Monday

Defence counsel in the Melissa Mahon murder trial has told the jury that, while it may not like the accused and may suspect him of some crime, it should not convict him of murder based on his daughters' accounts which are “radically inconsistent and inherently incredible”.

Brendan Grehan SC, defending, told the jury that after a five-week trial it had still not heard the truth about what happened to Melissa Mahon.

Ronald McManus (aged 44), also known as Ronnie Dunbar, of Rathbraughan Park, Sligo, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Melissa on a date unknown between September

14 and 30, 2006. He also denied threatening to kill one of his daughters, Samantha Dunbar.

Brendan Grehan SC, defending, told the jury in his closing speech on day 22 of the Central Criminal Court trial that Mr McManus had ignored “sartorial advice” from his defence team. Mr Grehan said: “He presents as he is. What you see is someone heavily tattooed and muscular in build. From the evidence you’ve heard and from your observations he may seem a little bit belligerent”.

Mr Grehan said his client was someone who was anti-authority and refused to “kowtow” in a way that others might. Mr Grehan said Mr McManus “harbours what many people would call strange beliefs about the coming of a new world order and his role in leading the fight with his pit bulls”.

Counsel also referred to evidence that Mr McManus believed he was a demon fighter. Mr Grehan said his client may have appeared to be difficult and awkward and a “controlling type of person”.

He said the accused was someone with a “deep-seated difficulty with the gardaí” and the manner in which he perceived they had conducted this investigation. Mr McManus felt that he had been, “hung out to dry, hounded by the media and demonised”.

Mr Grehan told the jury that Mr McManus may not be to its liking but cautioned it not to “judge a book by its cover” or make a leap to finding him guilty of murder.

He said that the common theme in the way Mr McManus had been perceived in court and in the media was that he must be guilty. He said: “You may well feel he is guilty of other crimes that he has not been charged with such as the sexual abuse of Melissa Mahon or the disposal of her body”.

Mr Grehan said: “If ever there was a case where there was an awful lot of prejudice and emotional baggage, this is one”.

Counsel said that the case rested on the evidence of the accused’s daughters.

Mr Grehan said their accounts were “radically inconsistent and inherently incredible”.

He said, “They simply have not told you the truth”. Mr Grehan acknowledged that the accused had not told the jury what happened either. He said Mr McManus’ position had always been that he would not comment on what his daughters had said. Mr Grehan said the accused was entitled to “sit back, make no contribution and let the State prove the case against him if it could”.

Mr Grehan told the jury it was not entitled to speculate about the dysfunctional nature of the accused’s family. “Suffice to say he is entitled to take the position he has”, Mr Grehan said.

In relation to evidence from Mr McManus’ ex-girlfriend, Angelique Sheridan who told the court that the accused said he had a plan to strangle Melissa rather than go to jail for her, Mr Grehan said, “You couldn’t hang a dog on that kind of evidence”.

Mr Grehan said that Samantha Conroy and the accused man’s youngest daughter, who cannot be named, gave inconsistent accounts. He said Samantha said she saw her father lying on a bed with Melissa with his arm around her neck. Samantha said she saw no violence being done and saw her father jump up when she entered the room. She said he got a sleeping bag and placed Melissa into it. While he was out of the room Samantha said she tried to resuscitate Melissa who was struggling to breathe and then died.

On the other hand her sister told the court that the accused placed a tie around Melissa’s neck, put a pillow over her face and strangled her with his hands.

Mr Grehan accepted that the girls were young at the time but said, “Samantha had already at that stage had perhaps done a lot more living than most teenagers”. He said neither girl “came across as in any way shrinking violets”.

Counsel suggested that the prosecution had discarded the youngest daughter’s account and asked the jury to accept Samantha’s. He said Samantha’s account “simply doesn’t add up”. He said the jury would have to “rely full square on Samantha’s evidence which does not come up to the threshold needed for murder”.

Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, earlier told the jury that there was “ample evidence” before it that Mr McManus murdered Melissa and threatened to kill Samantha.

She said the accused was “a man in a position of control. He controlled these women and they did what he told them to do”. She said his daughters were frightened of him. She said Samantha had said she still loved her father and the younger girl had initially tried to protect him.

Ms Kennedy said that the jury had heard evidence that there had been a sexual relationship between the accused and Melissa and evidence of the level of control he exerted over her and his daughters.

In charging the jury, Mr Justice Barry White said that the prosecution must satisfy the jury that Melissa was unlawfully killed by the accused. If it did accept that then it could find the accused guilty of manslaughter. He said that the jury must then be satisfied that a required intention was present before the accused could be convicted of murder.

Mr Justice White will complete his charge on Monday morning and then send the jury of six men and six women to begin its deliberations.