The Court of Criminal appeal has reserved judgment in the case of a Sligo man seeking to overturn his conviction for the manslaughter of a 14-year-old girl.
Ronald McManus, also known as Ronnie Dunbar (45), had pleaded not guilty to murdering Melissa Mahon between September 14th and 30th, 2006.
He was jailed for life last year having being found guilty of her manslaughter by a Central Criminal Court jury following a 25 day trial in May 2009.
Surmising nine written submissions before the court, counsel for the defence, Mr Kenneth Fogarty SC, contended that the original trial judge had shown evidence of bias against Dunbar, had handed down a “grossly disproportionate” sentence and had erred in not directing the jury to confusion in the prosecution case.
Mr Fogarty said that two key prosecution witnesses involved in the disposal of the body had given varying accounts of the death of Melissa Mahon and the prosecution had adopted a “blunderbuss approach” in putting forth evidence before the court.
He said that the original trial judge had been “fundamentally wrong” when he asserted that evidence given by one witness to having seen Dunbar manually strangle the victim had been given under cross-examination when in fact it had become apparent during re-examination of the witness.
Mr Fogarty said that Mr Justice Barry White had demonstrated bias when he instructed the jury to retire for the weekend on the day 21 of the trial and “get the bad taste of the case” out of their mouths and when he referred to one adult witness as a “child” during her video-link evidence.
He also said that the imposition of a life sentence was grossly disproportionate and had gone against the “eyes, ears and conscience” of the jury who had found that the evidence did not support a murder case.
Isobel Kennedy SC, counsel for the State, told the court that although there were differences between the two witness accounts, both had remained constant in their description of the killing.
Ms Kennedy said that both girls had described how Melissa was alive in the house with Dunbar and then when she left she was dead and wrapped in a sleeping bag.
She said that physical evidence gleaned from the remains of the victim, such as a Beauty and the Beast nightdress and the method by which the sleeping bag was tied, corroborated the account given by the two witnesses.
Ms Kennedy said that the trial judge was correct when he asserted that the witnesses who claimed to have seen Dunbar manually strangle the victim did so under cross-examination and that the judge further assisted the defence’s case by reminding the jury that this account differed from the “paper” case put forth by the prosecution.
She said that if the two witnesses had given precisely the same account of events then there would doubtless be a complaint of pollution by the defence.
Ms Kennedy submitted that a judge could only withdraw a charge from jury under exceptional circumstances, such as when witnesses varied in the technical account of what occurred rather than inconsistencies in their version of events.
She also told the court that there had been no complaints of bias made against Mr Justice White by either the jury or the defence during the original trial.
Ms Kennedy said that the sentencing structure with regard to manslaughter was very elastic and that Mr Justice White was entitled to consider the imposition of a life sentence in the matter, given the age and vulnerability of the victim and the circumstances surrounding the disposal of her remains.
The three judge court, with Mrs Justice Fidelma Macken presiding, will return judgement at a later date.