THE JURY in the trial of a 23-year-old woman accused of murdering a man by crushing him with her car has failed to reach a verdict following two days of deliberations.
The jury of six men and six women said they could not agree on a majority verdict and remained split nine to three after more than 6½ hours of discussions.
The accused, Claire Nolan of Sheephill Green in Blanchardstown, Dublin, gave no reaction as Mr Justice Barry White thanked the jury and said the case would be sent forward for retrial.
She had denied murdering Michael Duffy (66) by driving her car at him and crushing him in the driveway of his son’s home at Wellview Grove, Blanchardstown, in January 2008.
Ms Nolan, who has been attending a drug treatment centre since June, admitted manslaughter. But the prosecution refused to accept the plea and the murder trial lasted six days at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Duffy, a native of North King Street in north inner city Dublin, died after receiving a crush injury to the chest that broke his spine, severed his spinal cord and crushed part of his heart and liver.
The court heard that Ms Nolan had spent the evening of January 25th, 2008, at her friend’s home in Wellview Grove, Blanchardstown, drinking wine and taking sleeping tablets and cocaine.
Giving evidence via video-link from Australia, the accused’s friend Maria Cunninngham Dutton described seeing her next-door neighbour, and son of the deceased, Francis Duffy, trying to break into the accused’s car.
A row broke out and “Fran” rang his father Michael Duffy, who then drove to his son’s home from Cavan where he had been visiting friends.
Ms Cunningham-Dutton said the accused was “off her head on cocaine” at the time and “in a rage” after the altercation with Francis Duffy (42).
She said they had always had trouble with him as a neighbour, and he was described as being “a bit of a fruitcake” by another witness.
In her Garda interviews, the accused said she had no idea Michael Duffy had arrived at the scene when she drove her car at 20 miles an hour into the driveway of Francis Duffy’s house to “get him”. She said she had “lost it” and wanted to hit Fran with her car and wreck his house and scare him back inside.
Ms Nolan said Michael Duffy jumped in front of her out of nowhere and she ended up crushing him against the house.
“I ended up squashing the man. I didn’t mean to squash him. I couldn’t stop . . . I couldn’t brake and I ended up squashing the man,” she said.
She then reversed at speed out of the driveway and drove away from the scene.
An ambulance was called for Mr Duffy but he had lost a significant amount of blood and was pronounced dead a short time later.
Ms Nolan said it was a “freak accident” and apologised repeatedly in her Garda interviews.
Patrick Gageby, for the prosecution, told the jury, however, it was “manifestly clear that this was not an accident”. He said there were elements of planning, premeditation and skilled driving in her actions.
But Ms Nolan’s defence lawyer, Brendan Grehan, said it was clear she was “totally out of control” at the time.
A date for the retrial is due to be fixed on March 22nd.