Galway Bay fm newsroom - The jury in the trial of a Portumna man, who denies murdering his 76-year-old aunt by driving over her in an agricultural teleporter, has been told it's too early for them to return a majority verdict.
58 year old Michael Scott, of Gortanumera, has pleaded NOT guilty to murdering his aunt Chrissie Treacy outside her home in Derryhiney on April 27th 2018.
Ms Justice Caroline Biggs has responded to questions from the jury, which began its deliberations last Friday.
Ms Justice Biggs said the best verdict is a unanimous one and the jury "must return a unanimous verdict at this stage."
She said a majority verdict would be accepted "after a number of days in a case like this."
When speaking on the legal principles that apply in the trial, Ms Justice Biggs said there is no doubt Mr Scott was the cause of his aunt's death.
But said for a murder verdict the jury must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time he ran over his aunt he intended to kill or cause serious injury to her.
The trial has previously heard that Mr Scott told gardai that he was reversing the teleporter across the yard outside Ms Treacy’s home when he felt a thump and thought he might have struck a trailer. He said he rolled the machine forward to level ground and when he got out of the cabin he found Ms Treacy lying on the ground.
The prosecution case is that Mr Scott deliberately reversed over Ms Treacy following a long-running dispute over land. Mr Scott’s lawyers have told the Central Criminal Court that her death was a tragic accident.
The jury has spent four hours and 17 minutes deliberating and will return to the Central Criminal Court today.
