A round-up of other cases before the courts.
Court orders retrial in drugs case
The Court of Criminal Appeal has overturned the conviction and 10-year sentence imposed on a Co Offaly man on charges of having €13,000 worth of drugs. A retrial was ordered in the case of Daniel Cleary.
After yesterday's judgment, Mr Cleary, of Tullamore, Co Offaly, was freed on bail pending his retrial.
Two Dublin riot suspects charged
Two more people appeared in court yesterday charged in connection with last Saturday's riot in Dublin.
Thomas Morley (24) and John Saunders (38), both unemployed and living at Galway Road, Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, were charged with threatening and abusive behaviour on O'Connell Street.
A file was being prepared for the DPP and more serious charges may follow.
Judge William Early remanded both in custody with consent to bail to appear in Cloverhill District Court next Friday.
Court dismisses murder appeal
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by a man against his conviction for the murder of a woman in a nightclub in Limerick city eight years ago.
Mark Cronin (35), of Crecora Avenue, Prospect, Limerick, was convicted in the Central Criminal Court on April 4th, 2000, of the murder of Georgina O'Donnell (20), of St Brigid's Avenue, St Mary's Park, Limerick, at the Henry Cecil nightclub on March 3rd, 1998.
At the trial in the Central Criminal Court, the court was told Cronin had head-butted his wife, Angela Collins, on the night Ms O'Donnell died, and had stormed out of the club.
The prosecution claimed he later returned with a handgun which he pointed at his wife. It was claimed she had slapped away his hand and the gun went off, killing Ms O'Donnell, who was not with the party but was standing close by.
Cronin lost his appeal against conviction to the Court of Criminal Appeal but that court, on the application of lawyers for Cronin, later certified the case for appeal to the Supreme Court on a point of law.
The point of law related to whether the trial judge had misdirected the jury in relation to the circumstances of the fatal shooting of Ms O'Donnell. The possibility of the gun accidentally discharging was not put to the jury, it was argued on behalf of Cronin.
Yesterday, the five-judge Supreme Court dismissed the appeal.
Homeless man's jailing unlawful
A homeless man jailed last Wednesday for 30 days after he was unable to pay a €450 fine imposed for public order offences was freed by the High Court yesterday after the State conceded his detention was unlawful.
When the challenge to the legality of the detention of John Forrester, who has no previous convictions, came before Mr Justice Michael Peart yesterday, the State conceded the detention was unlawful.
The judge directed Mr Forrester's release.
Donogh Malley, for Mr Forrester, contended that Mr Forrester had been deprived of fair procedures in that the previous court order was made in a manner which precluded Mr Forrester from complying with it and, due to Mr Forrester's circumstances, was tantamount to a jail sentence.