Reserved judgement in Dublin murder appeal case

The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgement in the case of a Dublin man convicted of murdering a 27-year-old man on the Clontarf Road more than five years ago.

Craig White (aged 24), with a last address at O’Devaney Gardens, was sentenced to life imprisonment in July last year having being found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury of the murder of Noel Roche.

Mr Roche was killed in a drive-by shooting while sitting in the passenger seat of a Ford Mondeo car on November 15, 2005. He had been attending a Phil Collins concert at the 02 Arena with some friends.

Samples taken from a blue Peugeot 307 car, which was abandoned on Furry Park Road after the shooting, were later found to contain firearms residue.

Two men were also seen running from the abandoned car and two gloves were found along Furry Park Road.

Inside the Peugeot, which had been recently stolen, gardaí found a Glock semi-automatic pistol sheathed in a brown paper bag. Ballistics experts tied this weapon to shell casings found at the murder scene.

Craig White's fingerprints were found on the brown paper bag used to house the murder weapon, while his DNA was found on the handles of the bag.

The gloves that were found near the abandoned getaway car also yielded his DNA. However, forensic experts could not determine whether the DNA was on the inside or outside of the gloves and could not rule out that it had arrived there as a result of secondary transfer.

The trial also heard evidence associating fibres found on the gloves with fibre samples taken from the Peugeot 307.

Counsel for the applicant, Mr Brendan Grehan SC, argued that the trial judge had erred in allowing a fingerprint expert to express that he had “no doubt” that the prints found on the brown paper matched those of Craig White.

He told the court that there was nothing about fingerprint analysts which would “elevate them above” other experts and that they should not be allowed to convey what is purely an opinion using legal phraseology.

Surmising a total of eight submissions, Mr Grehan also argued that that the prison warrant issued for White’s arrest was not valid as it failed to list in full the preconditions necessary to issue such a warrant.

Mr Grehan said that the forensic samples taken from White should not have been admissible, as gardai told him in the absence of his solicitor that certain inferences could be drawn should he fail to provide DNA samples.

He said the trial judge made a number of errors in his charge to the jury and that the case should have been withdrawn from the jury.

Presiding judge Mrs Justice Fidelma Macken, sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice Daniel O’Keefe, said that the appeal was not the type of case where the court could deliver an extemporary judgement.

Mrs Justice Macken said it was likely the court would not return judgement until the end of January.