Jury to resume deliberations tomorrow in Nolan trial

The jury in the trial of a woman charged with murdering a 66-year-old father, was sent home for the night after failing to reach a verdict at the Central Criminal Court.

The six men and six women spent almost three hours deliberating in the case of Claire Nolan (aged 23), who denies murdering Michael Duffy in the driveway of his son's home at Well View Grove in Blanchardstown, in January 2008.

Ms Nolan, of Sheephill Grove in Blachardstown, admits to the taxi driver's manslaughter, but her plea was not accepted by the prosecution, who argue that she murdered Mr Duffy by driving her car at him and crushing him to death on January 26, 2008.

He suffered a massive injury to his chest which resulted in his spine breaking and severing his spinal cord, and part of his heart and liver being crushed.

A friend of the accused and one of the main eye-witnesses to give evidence, Maria Cunningham-Dutton, told the jury that Ms Nolan was “off her head on cocaine” at the time of the killing.

In her evidence via video-link from Australia, she described how she saw her next door neighbour and son of the deceased, Francis Duffy, trying to break into the accused's new car in the early hours of the morning.

Ms Nolan had bought the red Nissan Micra for €250 that day, and the two friends had spent the afternoon taking sleeping tablets and driving the car.

They went back to Ms Cunningham-Dutton's house in Blanchardstown where they took cocaine and drank several bottles of wine.

The witness said Ms Nolan was "in a rage" after Fran Duffy went at her car and a row broke out.

Fran, who was described as “a bit of a fruitcake” and “not the full shilling” during the trial, then rang his father, Michael Duffy, who had been spending the day with friends in Cavan.

Mr Duffy drove to his son's house, but the accused later told gardaí in her interviews that she had no idea he was in the driveway with his son when she drove in at around 20 miles an hour to “get” Fran with her car.

She said she couldn't control her temper when she was drunk and she had “lost it” and wanted to hit Fran and wreck his house.

But she said she hadn't intended to hurt or kill anyone and thought he would just run back into the house.

“I went into the garden to get Fran and the man got in the way...I didn't mean to kill anyone... I hadn't got it in my head that I was going to knock Fran down, I just wanted to fly in and scare him.”

“I ended up squashing the man, I didn't mean to squash him... I couldn't stop... I couldn't brake.... and I ended up squashing the man,” she said.

She then reversed out of the drive and her car was later found almost completely burnt out.

But Ms Nolan repeatedly denied to gardaí that she had set fire to the car, and said she only remembered panicking and abandoning it, and then falling asleep in a field.

She described the incident as a “freak accident” and apologised for what she had done.

Ms Cunningham-Dutton also told the jury the accused “didn't mean to do it... anyone can see there's no motive for this...she wouldn't have done it on purpose.”

But in his charge to the jury, Mr Justice Barry White warned them that the witness may have been “seeking to usurp your function...you're the ones who decide the facts.”

Addressing the issue of provocation in the case, he instructed them to consider that “provocation can emanate from someone other than the person killed...such as Fran Duffy in this case.”

Before sending them home for the night, Mr Justice White said he would be willing to accept a majority verdict of either 11/1 or 10/2 in the case.

The jury is due to resume its deliberations in the morning.