An application by a "New Age Traveller" to change his plea for from guilty to not guilty has been refused at the Central Criminal Court.
Earlier this month, Mr Keith Cooper (25), with an address at Gortimar, Manorhamilton, was due to be sentenced for the manslaughter of Elliot Colin Double, otherwise known as Elliot Robertson, at a campsite on the mountainside at Boihy, Co Leitrim, on October 6th, 1998.
Mr Cooper was one of three men who had entered pleas of not guilty to murder but guilty of manslaughter of Mr Robertson when the trial was due to start last July.
In his application, Mr Cooper claimed Garda corruption and new medical evidence that indicated the post-mortem carried out on the deceased showed more injuries than were inflicted on him at the time he was hospitalised.
However, Mr Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan rejected the application made by Cooper on the grounds that he was not satisfied there was any new evidence "to support his claims of mis-action" by either the gardaí or medical personnel.
Two months before the three men were due to be sentenced, one of the men, Mark Francis Barber (33), was found dead in a caravan on the mountainside campsite. His mother blamed the trauma he had been through in connection with the murder charge for his suicide.
The third man, Andrew Gordon Roche (36), with an address in Drumlease, Dromohair, Co Leitrim, was in court yesterday awaiting sentence for manslaughter.
Mr Justice O'Donovan adjourned sentencing to allow Mr Cooper assemble witnesses or evidence. Both Mr Cooper and Mr Roche will now be sentenced on November 7th.