Legal issue collapses murder trial in Cork

THE trial has collapsed of a Romanian man accused of murdering another man in Cork.

Judge Tara Byrne informed the jury this was due to a ‘legal issue’ but details of this cannot be published as the case may go to retrial at the Central Criminal Court.

The jury had heard a full day of testimony from witnesses against Ciprian ‘Chippy’ Grozavu, 44, who denies murdering Jonathan Duke.

Jurors were told Mr Grozavu was overheard ‘screaming and roaring’ in celebration as he returned upstairs to the top-floor flat in Bridge House, Sean Hales Place, Bandon, Co. Cork, where he was accused of murdering the 27-yearold earlier on November 13, 2011.

More witness testimony was due to have been heard yesterday but it ended after matters were raised by Mr Grozavu’s legal team.

The jury were then led in and addressed by the judge. She told them: ‘I am the judge of law and I have to ensure it is correctly applied. A legal issue arose... on which I have to decide.’

This issue, she said, would restrict a fundamental principle – that everyone is entitled to, and that is the presumption of innocence.

Among the witnesses who had given evidence was a man living in the flat below Mr Grozavu on the night of the alleged murder. He and his boyfriend allegedly heard a body being thrown down the stairs in the flat complex, and allegedly saw it being dumped in the Bandon, the trial heard.