The Court of Criminal Appeal has rejected an application by a Nigerian man, jailed for life after he bludgeoned his wife to death with a lump hammer, to have his case referred to the Supreme Court on a point of public importance.
In July 2006 Goodwill Udechukwu was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of the murder of Jamaican mother-of-two Natasha Gray.
The 33-year-old, with a previous address at Royal Canal View, Royal Canal Bank, Phibsboro in Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to Ms Gray's murder at the same address on February 18th, 2003.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment by Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins. Last May, the CCA rejected his appeal against conviction.
Mr Pieter Le Vert BL, for Udechuku, today asked the CCA to refer a point of law in the case for determination by the Supreme Court.
The point related to a remark by the trial judge during his charge to the jury that he had an opinion about the matter.
While the trial judge emphasised the opinion was solely his own, and did not express it, counsel said the remark could have confused the jury and it was in the public interest that the issue be determined.
However, the three judge CCA, consisting of Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan, presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Liam Mckechnie and Ms Justice Maureen Clark, dismissed the application.
Mr Justice Geoghegan said the court was quite satisfied that no point of law of public importance had been raised. The point raised was "manifestly unsound" and the fact the trial judge had said he had an opinion was "irrelevant."
Any juror with a bit of common sense will know that a judge hearing a trial will form an opinion, the judge added.