Aaron Connolly to face retrial on charge of murdering Cameron Reilly

Aaron Connolly:  Having quashed the now 26-year-old defendant's conviction in May, the Court of Appeal ordered that he be retried on the murder charge. File picture: Collins Courts

Aaron Connolly, who spent three years in prison before his conviction for murdering teenager Cameron Reilly was quashed on appeal, will be retried at the Central Criminal Court later this year.

Having quashed the now 26-year-old defendant's conviction in May, the Court of Appeal ordered that he be retried on the murder charge.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott has set November 23 as the date for Mr Connolly's retrial before a jury at the Central Criminal Court.

A date of July 24 this year was set for management of the case.

Michael Bowman, for Mr Connolly, told the judge that his client's first trial lasted three weeks but said the retrial would go into a fourth week.

The Court of Appeal ordered the retrial on June 4 this year, having previously found that remarks made by the judge at the original trial may have been perceived by the jury as "disparaging" of the defence case and "advocacy" for the prosecution.

Two days later at the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice McDermott agreed to remand Mr Connolly, who is now aged 26, on bail on strict conditions, including that he live with his parents and not leave the house unaccompanied.

Mr Reilly, a student at Dundalk Institute of Technology, had been part of a group of around 15 young people who gathered in a field on the outskirts of the town on the night of May 25, 2018. 

Alcohol and cannabis were consumed by some of those present, although Mr Reilly’s best friend told the trial the deceased never took drugs. The group went to a local takeaway to get food shortly after midnight.

Mr Reilly’s body was found in the field the following morning by a man out walking his dog.

During his trial, Mr Connolly made admissions through his lawyers that he performed oral sex on Mr Reilly on the night he was killed. The accused said that when he left, Mr Reilly was still alive and standing up.

Mr Connolly, of Willistown, Drumcar, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of 18-year-old Mr Reilly at Shamrock Hill, Dunleer, Co Louth, on May 26, 2018, but was found guilty by a unanimous jury verdict in December 2022 and received the mandatory life sentence.

That conviction was quashed, with the appeal court finding that the charge delivered by the trial judge, Mr Justice Tony Hunt, contained comments of such "stridency and emphasis" that there was a "real possibility the jury could have perceived he was personally convinced of the guilt of the accused and that, implicitly, he was pressing them to deliver a guilty verdict".