Background: No one now stands convicted of the killing of Brian Murphy, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent.
It was an incident that shocked middle Ireland. On a summer night in August 2000 a young student on a night out got involved in a brawl with other students outside a nightclub frequented by Dublin's gilded youth, and ended up dead of head injuries.
The event was not unprecedented. Over the previous few years there had been a number of incidents where a young man ended up dead or seriously injured following a drunken brawl or an unprovoked attack.
But this was different. The victim, Brian Murphy, had just completed a post-Leaving Certificate course, after attending some of Dublin's most prestigious schools, including St Conleth's in Ballsbridge and Gonzaga in Ranelagh. Those accused of attacking him were identified as recently graduated pupils from Blackrock College, another high- profile fee-paying school.
In the past, similar incidents had involved young men on the margins of society, often unemployed or with a history of material or emotional deprivation.
The young men in this case were all from privileged backgrounds, the beneficiaries of the best education money could buy, with no history of violence. Two of those eventually charged had been on Blackrock College's senior rugby team, the pinnacle of school sporting achievement.
It was some weeks before arrests were made, and the names of Andrew Frame, Desmond Ryan and Seán Mackey, all from south Dublin, and Dermot Laide, from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, became public.
There were a number of delays in the case coming to court, and it was January 2004, three-and-a-half years after the death of Brian Murphy, that the four young men appeared charged together with his manslaughter and violent disorder.
The case, in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court before Judge Michael White, went on for six weeks, with the court sitting for 31 days. For a considerable portion of that time it sat in the absence of the jury, as lawyers for the two sides argued about the conduct of the trial.
Andrew Frame was acquitted by direction of the judge, Desmond Ryan acquitted of manslaughter by the jury, and the jury could not agree in the case of Seán Mackey. Both Ryan and Mackey were convicted of violent disorder, as was Laide. He alone was convicted of manslaughter.
It was clear from the trial that, while a number of facts emerged, others remained hidden. The four accused had made statements to the gardaí, admitting some degree of involvement in the fracas that ended with the tragic death.
Andrew Frame admitted that no fight would have occurred if he had not moved towards Murphy in response to taunts. Both Seán Mackey and Dermot Laide said they had got involved in order to protect Andrew Frame. Desmond Ryan admitted punching Murphy in the jaw area after the fight had started, but withdrew and later helped carry his injured body from the scene.
The evidence showed that the whole fracas had involved a large group of young men who isolated, punched and kicked Brian Murphy. A group of about six kicked him while he lay on the ground. The State Pathologist, Prof John Harbison, said that it was likely that he died from a kick to the head, though he could not be certain whether a blow or a kick killed him.
There was no objective evidence that any of the four had delivered the fatal kick.
As witness after witness took the stand, one fact emerged more strongly than any other - there was an awful lot of drink involved.
Brian Murphy himself had had a few drinks, though he was described by several witnesses as "in fine form" and "merry, not drunk".
Some witnesses admitted to having consumed as much as 17 drinks that night.
Andrew Frame had six pints of Bulmers before going out, followed by more drink in the club. Dermot Laide had had six drinks. Some of the girls who gave evidence, too, had had a lot to drink. Desmond Ryan said he put the whole incident down to drink.
The fact that there was a lot of drink involved meant that the evidence from the various witnesses was not very clear, and was often contradictory. This in turn meant that much of the case rested on the statements made by the four accused. Inevitably, the contents of some of the statements implicated certain of the other accused.
Courts are well aware that they must be very careful to ensure that one accused person does not implicate a co-accused while making his own defence, for the obvious reason that a person might seek to exonerate himself by blaming someone else.
In Seán Mackey's statement to gardaí, which was admitted in court during the trial, he said he remembered Dermot Laide "throwing punches" at Brian Murphy while he was falling back. He then said Mr Murphy fell to the ground, where he was kicked by Dermot Laide. No one else saw this, and Laide himself admitted the punches, but not the kick.
Following lengthy legal argument, Judge White ruled that Mackey's statement be edited so that the reference was to a "Mr A" kicking Mr Murphy. He then allowed counsel for Ryan and Frame to establish that "Mr A" did not refer to either of them.
This meant that, given the earlier reference, the jury was likely to conclude that Mr A was Dermot Laide. As the Court of Criminal Appeal said: "Seán Mackey's statement constituted the only possible identification of any of the four accused as having actually done so [kicked Mr Murphy in the head]."
While the Court of Criminal Appeal acknowledged it could not know why the jury reached the conclusion it did in convicting Dermot Laide of manslaughter, it stated: "There is a real possibility that they convicted Dermot Laide because they believed that he was the person who kicked Brian Murphy. They could only have reached this conclusion from the statements of Sean Mackey."
On this basis they allowed the appeal, and ordered a retrial.
It is by no means certain there will be a retrial. It is very unlikely witnesses' recollections will be any clearer now than they were over a year ago. Meanwhile, all the arguments have been rehearsed in court, and contradictions in the evidence have been explored. Difficulties with statements have also been revealed.
All this is of little comfort to the family of Brian Murphy. Their son is dead. No one has been convicted of killing him. Those charged with his manslaughter, all of whom were either acquitted, had the jury disagree or had the conviction quashed, were those who came forward to admit their role in the incident, though all denied delivering a kick to the head that could have been fatal.
Unidentified people were described as having kicked Brian Murphy in the head as he lay on the ground. Neither they, nor anyone who could have identified them, have ever come forward.