A 34-year-old woman was yesterday found not guilty by the direction of a judge of the murder of a 25-year-old man whose badly beaten body was found dumped on waste ground in Co Kerry more than two years ago.
Gillian Purcell originally from Hollyville, Hollyhill, Cork, but with an address c/o the Simon Community in Cork, had denied the murder of John McManus at his flat at Verdon Place, Wellington Road, Cork, between October 28th and November 7th, 2008.
Yesterday, at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, Mr Justice Paul Carney directed the jury of five men and six women to find Ms Purcell not guilty of murdering Mr McManus, whose body was found dumped near Ballyduff in north Kerry.
Mr Justice Carney said that having examined the evidence against Ms Purcell, he did not believe it came near the level required to be put to a jury and he was not satisfied any verdict that they might reach on such evidence would be safe.
Tim O’Leary SC, Ms Purcell’s defence counsel, had said there was an issue between the parties as to whether Ms Purcell was present or not when Mr McManus was killed but even if the jury found she was present, it still did not mean she was guilty of murder. “The law permits a person to be present at the commission of a crime no matter how grievous or horrible and not to lift a finger to prevent it or aid the victim, and not be guilty of any crime.
“It is not against the law to be a passive spectator at a crime.
“Suppose you found that Gillian was there. The prosecution would have to get her to a joint enterprise with the co-accused to commit the offence.
“The classic example is the bank robbery,” he said as he explained his decision.
“Suppose there is one member of the gang enters a room and comes across a woman and decides he will have an opportunistic spot of rape.
“He is guilty but others in the gang are not guilty of the rape,” he said.
Mr Justice Carney said the fact that Ms Purcell was in a relationship with her co-accused, John Walsh (45), was not sufficient evidence and he could not find a sufficiency of evidence against her elsewhere in the prosecution case.
Mr O’Leary had completed his summing up of Ms Purcell’s defence of the case to the jury just before lunchtime yesterday but then an issue arose in the absence of the jury.
When they returned after lunch, Mr Justice Carney directed them to find Ms Purcell not guilty.
The trial continues of her co-accused, John Walsh, who has an address at Cork Street, Mitchelstown, on the same charge of murdering Mr McManus in 2008.
