THE judge in the murder trial of Mr Frederick Flannery will today rule on a defence application to withdraw the case from the jury and direct it to return a verdict of not guilty.
The application was made by Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending, following legal discussion yesterday after the trial was told the Garda had only disclosed on Monday more documents relating to the case whose existence was previously unknown to the defence and prosecution.
The trial of Mr Frederick Flannery (35), of no fixed abode, opened on June 17th. He denies the murder of Mr Denis Patrick O'Driscoll (33), at Wellington Terrace, Cork, between December 15th and 31st, 1994.
Mr Kevin Haugh SC, prosecuting, said it was the State's case that Mr Flannery murdered Mr O'Driscoll, dismembered his body and disposed of it. Counsel said gardai had never found the body of Mr O'Driscoll.
Proceedings were adjourned last Friday until yesterday after "the court was told gardai had handed over additional documents relating to the trial.
Neither the prosecution nor defence had been aware of these documents, the court heard.
Mr Justice Barr said all documents should be handed over and he criticised as "outrageous" the delay in producing the papers. He agreed to an uncontested defence application to adjourn the hearing until yesterday.
When the trial resumed Mr MacEntee said more documents had been handed over to his solicitor by gardai last Monday and the defence had not yet had the opportunity to examine them.
Mr MacEntee said he had been told some of the papers could be "of some consequence" and some of the documents received on Friday were of capital importance.
Mr Shane Murphy, prosecuting, said he supported Mr MacEntee's application. The State had also not had an opportunity to examine the papers and he wanted to take instructions on why documents were still being handed over as late as Monday.
Mr Justice Barr agreed to the application for an adjournment. Legal discussion then got under way in the absence of the jury.
It continued until 5 p.m. when Mr Justice Barr sent the jury away until today.
The judge told the jury an application had been made that the ease should be withdrawn from it and that he direct it to return a verdict of not guilty.
The judge asked the jurors to return to court this afternoon when he is expected to give his decision.