Derry murder-accused faces jury in Dublin

A man will make legal history today as the first person from the North to face a jury in the Republic for a non-terrorist related offence in the North.

Stephen Cahoon is charged with murdering his partner and mother-of-four Jean Quigley, who was killed in her Derry home in July last year.

He was arrested in Donegal town in August 2008 and chose to have his trial in the Republic instead of the North after the option was given to him.

Ms Quigley was two months pregnant when she was beaten to death at her Cornshell Fields home in the Shantallow area of the city on July 26.

Under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of 1976, suspects can be tried in the Republic for alleged offences in Britain or the North.

Last November Belfast man Gerard Mackin became the first person to be convicted by a Dublin court for a murder carried out in the North.

Mackin was jailed for life by the non-jury Special Criminal Court after he was found guilty of the killing of Belfast taxi driver Eddie Burns in the city in 2007.