Murder trial collapses after jurors reveal they watched Prime Time programme last night

The trial of a man accused of murdering musician Martin ‘Matt’ Kivlehan at his home in Sligo town in August 2015 has collapsed.

A murder trial has collapsed at the Central Criminal Court due to the content of last night’s Prime Time programme on RTE, which the judge said was likely to have influenced the deliberating jury.

Ms Justice Carmel Stewart criticised what she described as ‘a parallel justice system in the court of public opinion’ which operated without ‘any regard to the courts at trial’.