THE jury in a drugs trial was discharged after some members felt intimidated by a person they believed was brought into the court specially to identify one of them. The 16 year old youth being tried was accused of having enough cannabis to make over 2,300 cigarettes.
Judge Patrick Moran said the incident was most regrettable, and added: "I am not going to have jury people intimidated," before discharging them at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
The foreman of the jury told Judge Moran one member saw a person come into the court in the afternoon, sit down beside the family of the accused youth, look over at the juror and nod, and then leave.
The judge decided this was not sufficiently grave to discharge one or all of the jurors. He asked them to retire and try to reach a verdict.
The jury sent a message to the judge to say they could not reach a unanimous verdict because all or some members felt intimidated. Judge Moran then discharged the jury and ordered the accused youth to be held in custody until Monday, when the matter would be considered again.
Earlier Garda Kevin Daly told the court he was involved in a surveillance operation on Cork's north side on May 31st, 1996, when he saw the youth, who cannot be named because of his age, hanging about a soccer pitch.
Following a prearranged signal from another garda, Garda Daly said, he left the alley where he had been hiding and started walking towards the accused. He called on him to stop and then saw him throw an item into a back garden.
He climbed over a wall and retrieved the item.
A forensic scientist, Ms Enid Hughes, said she tested the bar and found it was 236.16gm of cannabis resin, which was enough to make 2,338 cigarettes.