Juror's illness leads to collapse of Bray Boxing Club murder trial

Gerard Cervi (pictured) had pleaded not guilty to murdering Bobby Messett and attempting to murder boxing trainer Peter Taylor and Ian Britton at Bray Boxing Club. File photo: Collins Courts

The trial of a man accused of murdering an early morning gym-goer and the attempted murder of coach Pete Taylor at Bray Boxing Club has collapsed at the Central Criminal Court due to a juror becoming seriously ill.

The trial has been sitting for 10 weeks and heard weeks of legal argument in the jury's absence since opening at the Criminal Courts of Justice.

Evidence was scheduled to continue before the 10 jurors today, but Mr Justice Michael White told the nine remaining jurors this morning that one of their number could not continue to attend the trial as she had to "go back into" hospital. The judge said that whilst the juror's illness was not "life-threatening", it was "impossible to continue" as they had "gone below 10 jurors".

Mr Justice White thanked the jury of three men and six women before discharging them from their civic duty. "My sincere thanks to you all. You have been a fantastic jury and shown real public service commitment. Thank you very much, you are now free to go," he added. 

He exempted the nine jurors from jury service for life. He then listed Gerard Cervi's case for mention before the Central Criminal Court on October 11.

Mr Cervi (34), from the East Wall area in Dublin 3, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Bobby Messett (50) at Bray Boxing Club, Bray Harbour, Bray, Co. Wicklow, on June 5, 2018. He also denied the attempted murder of boxing trainer Peter Taylor and Ian Britton on the same date and location.

The trial, which opened on June 29, was originally due to finish in August and two jurors asked to be discharged when the finish date was extended to September. On August 24, the remaining 10 jurors further agreed to sit on until October 22.

However, nine members of the jury arrived in court last Thursday and Mr Justice White told them he was "sorry to hear about the illness to one of your number." He said he hoped the juror would make a good recovery and adjourned the trial until today when he expected the court to have more information on the juror's condition.

Mr Justice White had previously told the jury that the trial could not continue with fewer than 10 jurors.

He had also previously apologised to the jury for the "very bad underestimation" of how long the trial would take.

The trial had heard that a gunman entered Bray Boxing Club at about 6.50am and opened fire. He shot Mr Messett in the head, killing him instantly. Mr Britton was shot in the leg. Boxing trainer Peter Taylor, who was running the class, ran towards the gunman but was shot in the shoulder and fell to the ground.

It was the State's case against Mr Cervi that he was the "lone gunman" who entered Bray Boxing Club just before 7am on June 5 and fired nine shots from a semi-automatic pistol "in quick succession" in "varying directions", leaving Mr Messett dead and trainer Pete Taylor and Mr Britton injured "before making good his escape".

In his opening address, prosecution counsel Paul Murray SC said that a silver metallic Volkswagen van allegedly used in the attack was found "not a million miles away" from the accused's family home at Russell Avenue East. He said gardaí had "a starting point" for the van at Bray Harbour, a "midpoint" for the van at Cabinteely and an "end point" for the van at Pigeon House Road in Ringsend. 

"We also have a witness who saw the van there [at Pigeon House Road] at 8.15am in the morning and a man with a bicycle," he said.

Mr Murray explained that if one added all the pieces together, the prosecution would say that not only was Mr Cervi the man on the bike, not only was he the man in the van but that he was also the man who entered Bray Boxing Club just before 7am that morning and carried out the shooting.

The barrister also pointed out in his opening speech that if a person makes a mistake, or kills the wrong person, it is still murder if there was intent to kill a person.