Trial over death of teenager collapses
THE trial of a woman accused of causing the death of a friend by careless driving has collapsed after the jury was mistakenly given a wrong document.
Sarah O’Connell, now 24, denied the charge over the death of 14-year-old Caitlin Taylor in an accident on the Cork-Kerry border more than three years ago.
Her trial at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court had heard how moments before the crash Caitlin had taken off her seatbelt so she could pick up her mobile phone, which had been dropped on the floor.
She was thrown from the car in the accident, the court heard.
A post-mortem found Caitlin died immediately from a fractured skull and an upper spinal cord injury.
Ms O’Connell’s 18-month-old daughter, Sophie, was also in the car when the vehicle plunged into a low-lying field.
She was found unharmed and still strapped into her booster seat after the road accident in Knockeenahone, Co. Kerry, on June 15, 2014.
The trial had heard how Caitlin, from Mallow, Co. Cork, had met Ms O’Connell in the town and asked her to drive her to Scartaglen in Co. Kerry that evening.
They left Mallow around 9.30pm and were 60km into their journey, and just 5km from their destination, when Ms O’Connell failed to take a bend, the court heard.
She went over a ramp-like mound and the car dropped two metres into a low-lying field, the court was told. The accident occurred around 11pm.
Ms O’Connell, then 20, was a learner driver, did not have L plates, was unaccompanied and had been driving for about eight months at the time, the court had heard.
However, she was fully insured, and the car was taxed, in good order and had had its NCT, the court heard. She was not speeding and has not driven since the accident, the trial was told.
On the third day of her trial yesterday, Judge Thomas O’Donnell discharged the jury after he learned they had accidentally been given a piece of evidence they should not have seen.
Closing speeches from the prosecution
Jury given wrong document
and defence had been made on Wednesday.
Judge O’Donnell had charged the jury yesterday morning, summing up the evidence and speaking about the distinction between dangerous driving and the lesser charge of driving without due care.
The 12 jury members had been handed the exhibits in the case including statements and a memo of a Garda interview with the accused.
They were sent out to begin their deliberations at 11.40am.
After lunch, but before restarting deliberations, the foreman of the jury asked the judge about a prosecution exhibit – a memo of an interview – which he said the jury had received and parts of which had been scribbled out.
The 12 jurors were sent to their room for legal arguments in their absence. At 2.40pm the jury were recalled.
Judge O’Donnell told jurors he wished to speak to them ‘in respect of the matter regarding the memo of interview and the parts scribbled out’.
He told them: ‘From time to time there’s agreement between the defence and the prosecution on matters.’
It had been agreed that a section of the memo should go out and the jurors had been given the edited document, he said. Unfortunately, they had also been given an item they should not have, the judge said, referring to the scribbled-on or unedited document which had been included in the exhibits.
‘The defence has made an application to discharge the jury,’ the judge said.
‘This has happened and I am sorry about that but there’s nothing I can do about it.’
He thanked the jurors and excused them from jury service for a period of five years before formally discharging them.
Ms O’Connell was told she could stand down and she left the dock to join her grandfather and mother.
The matter has been put back to the call-over list of January 15 next at the court, to fix a date for a new trial.
Ms O’Connell, from Mallow, has been remanded on continuing bail.