A Limerick man walked free from the Central Criminal Court yesterday after a jury found him not guilty of murdering the man he believed to be his wife's lover.
Mr Patrick Brennan (54), St Ida's Street, St Mary's Park, Limerick had denied the murder of father-of-eight Sean Colbert (53), Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick, who was killed outside his home on August 9th, 1996.
Mr Justice Barr discharged Mr Brennan after he was found not guilty of murder on a majority verdict. He thanked the jury members for their service, telling them the trial had been a lengthy one, and told them before being discharged that they would be taken to lunch at the expense of the State. The jury of nine men and three women spent under four hours considering their verdict with a break for an overnight stay at a hotel.
Previously the court was told that it was the State's case that Mr Brennan had procured his son Andrew and another man to shoot Mr Colbert whom he believed to be having an affair with his wife.
Mr Brennan had said in a statement to gardai that he believed his wife was having an affair and he was "tormented" and "was going crazy. I was like a lunatic. I was like a time bomb, it was eating me up," the statement read.
"The family was upset and it was a living nightmare," the court had been told. The defence contested the statements on the grounds that they were obtained using inappropriate means.
In cross-examination, Mr Brennan told the court that he never intended anyone to be killed. "I wanted someone to give him a fright but not to do him serious harm. I wanted him to have a fright but I never wanted anyone to be killed, my Lord," he said.
On the night of the shooting, Mr Colbert returned from visiting Mrs Brennan and was walking up the steps of his home when he was "shot twice in the back from behind. Two people dressed in balaclavas were seen running away from the scene," Mr John Edwards SC, prosecuting, had told the court.