Latest: Defence barrister urges jury to have 'grave concerns' about murder trial evidence

Latest: The barrister for a Kilkenny man accused of murdering a woman in the 1980s has told the jury they must have “grave concerns” about the evidence.

Update 4.11pm: The barrister for a Kilkenny man accused of murdering a woman in the 1980s has told the jury they must have “grave concerns” about the evidence.

Gardaí charged John Joseph Malone with the murder of Nancy Smyth after a cold case review led to a renewed investigation.

The significant difference between the evidence available to the team that investigated Nancy Smyth’s death in 1987 and that of the one that took another look at the case in 2012 were several statements from people who claimed John Joe Malone had confessed to her murder.

In his closing address this afternoon, defence barrister Coleman Cody described confessions as “fragile and dangerous things” and questioned whether they even happened.

He said it defies credibility that somebody would have that information and do nothing with it for so long.

He also accused the Gardaí of being so obsessed with his client that they excluded other possible suspects.

Mr Malone, who is from Newpark, is accused of beating and strangling the 69-year-old before setting her house on Wolfe Tone Street on fire.

The jury will begin its deliberations as soon as the judge has finished his charge.

Earlier:

Closing speeches have begun in the trial of a Kilkenny man accused of murdering a widow pensioner thirty years ago.

John Joseph Malone, who is from Newpark, denies beating and strangling 69-year-old Nancy Smyth at her home on Wolfe Tone Street in 1987.

The prosecuting barrister Sean Gillane began his closing address by saying “the passage of time doesn’t lessen the importance of Nancy’s death” and he said what happened to her “cannot be allowed fade into the mists of time.

John Joe Malone was arrested three days after the 69-year-old’s body was taken from her burning house on Wolfe Tone St. in Kilkenny city.

Aside from being placed at the scene that night, there was no other evidence linking Mr. Malone to the murder and he was released.

The investigation then ran into the sand until a woman called Eileen Kelly came forward in 2005 to say he told her he killed her.

Several others came forward with similar evidence following a Crimecall reconstruction seven years later.

Mr. Gillane said justice in this case is the delivery of the verdict that Mr. Malone murdered Nancy Smyth and finished by saying that on the night in question, he was heard shouting “I’ll f**king get you” and it is the prosecution’s case that he delivered on that promise.