A JURY has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a Dublin woman charged with murdering a father-of-four by crushing him with her car.
Claire Nolan (25), Sheephill Green, Blanchardstown, drove into Michael Duffy (66) and crushed him against his son’s house on January 26th, 2008. She told gardaí that she meant to knock down his son, Francis Duffy.
Ms Nolan pleaded not guilty to murdering the taxi driver in his son’s driveway on Wellview Grove, Blanchardstown, but pleaded guilty to his manslaughter. The prosecution did not accept her plea and she went on trial at the Central Criminal Court last week.
It was the second time Ms Nolan faced trial on this charge and it was the second jury that failed to reach a verdict in the case.
Ms Nolan, who was 21 at the time, had been drinking and taking drugs with friends in the house next door to Francis Duffy. She said she was told that this man was tampering with her car and went out to confront him.
Witnesses said they saw her beat him over his head a number of times with a baseball bat. She did not recall this but remembered breaking a branch off a tree in his garden. She said that Francis Duffy injured her hand with a knife. She left after this fight, got into her car in the next driveway, reversed out, ramming Michael Duffy’s taxi across the road into a pillar.
She then crashed through Francis Duffy’s gates and drove into his driveway, crushing his father against the house.
She said she was trying to knock down Francis Duffy when his father jumped in her way.
“I did intend on knocking him down because he was after giving me the digs, the f***ing w**ker,” she said. “The man just jumped out of nowhere . . . He wasn’t even in the fight.”
Ms Nolan then left in her car, which was later found on fire nearby.
The jury had deliberated for almost five hours and Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy discharged it and remanded her on continuing bail until December 19th.
The State must now decide whether to accept her manslaughter plea or try her again.