Murder case to make Irish legal history

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

Stephen Cahoon is charged with murdering his partner, mother-of-four Jean Quigley, in Derry in July last year.

The 37-year-old pleaded not guilty during a brief hearing at Dublin’s Central Criminal Court yesterday.

A jury of seven women and five men will hear the case, which is expected to last at least two weeks.

Mr Cahoon is accused of killing Ms Quigley (aged 30) at her home in Cornshell Fields, in the Shantallow area of the city.

After his arrest in Donegal, Mr Cahoon, of Harvey Street, Derry, opted to have his trial in the Republic instead of the north.

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.