Prosecution evidence in the trial of a Kildare woman accused of unlawfully killing her former partner has ended at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Ms Nicola Brereton (41), from Church Street, Kilcock, has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter on September 14th, 2001, of 52-year-old Mr John Smullen.
The day's evidence was briefly interrupted when a juror reported his notebook, photographs and drawings had "gone missing" from the jury room overnight.
Judge Frank O'Donnell adjourned the trial briefly to discuss the development with counsel in the absence of the jury. He decided to continue hearing evidence while inquiries are made as to how the material could have "disappeared" from the room. The jury had been given maps, drawings and photographs of the Church Street flat where Ms Brereton had stabbed Mr Smullen in the early hours of the morning of September 14th, 2001, during a row.
Earlier it had heard Ms Brereton's statement to gardaí in which she said she had stabbed him when he became violent with her after she refused to have sexual intercourse with him that night. She also told gardaí that Mr Smullen was a violent man who abused her regularly and that she was very afraid of him.
She told gardaí that she ran out of the flat after stabbing him and Mr Smullen appeared to be in her pursuit, leading her to believe that she could not have injured him that badly.
The jury has also heard from an investigating garda that when she heard Mr Smullen had died from the stab wound, she said: "I could not have hurt him that much." The trial continues.