Jury expected to begin deliberations tomorrow in trial of man accused of murdering Lisa Thompson

Alison O’Riordan

A jury in the trial of a man accused of murdering mother-of-two Lisa Thompson, who was strangled and stabbed to death in her own home, is expected to begin its deliberations tomorrow at the Central Criminal Court.

Presiding judge Ms Justice Karen O'Connor has now concluded her charge to the 12 jurors and sent them home for the evening at 3.50pm today. She asked them to return to the Central Criminal Court at 10.30am, when they can begin their deliberations.

The judge spent Wednesday explaining the law and summarising the evidence in the case to the jury of four men and eight women following the three-week trial at the Central Criminal Court. She told the jurors that they must be unanimous in their verdict before sending them away for the evening.

Evidence has been given that Ms Thompson - who was stabbed 11 times in the chest - was dealing prescription drugs from her home and that she and the accused Brian McHugh (40) had a "bit of a fling" in the year before she died.

The trial had also heard that gardaí searching Ms Thompson's home found thousands of prescription tablets worth nearly €50,000 hidden in her attic.

Brian McHugh with an address at Cairn Court, Poppintree, Ballymun in Dublin 11, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Thompson (52) at Sandyhill Gardens, Ballymun in Dublin 11 on May 9th, 2022.

The jury has heard that Ms Thompson was found inside the rear door of her home with multiple stab wounds to her chest and a window blind cord wrapped around her neck.

Ms Thompson died because of a combination of ligature strangulation causing asphyxia and multiple stab wounds to the left side of the chest.

In their closing speech on Tuesday, lawyers for Mr McHugh submitted to the jury that Ms Thompson was a "woman of secrets" and there was more to her killing "than would appear on the surface".

Defence counsel for Brian McHugh, Brendan Grehan SC, also argued in his closing address that this was not "the neat case wrapped up in a bow" which the prosecution had presented to the jury.

However in her closing speech, Fiona Murphy SC said the prosecution had "meticulously presented a tapestry of circumstantial evidence", where each thread had been interwoven, painting a "compelling picture" of Mr McHugh's guilt.

Ms Murphy said it was "hugely significant" that Mr McHugh's DNA was found on the blood-stained blind cord that was wrapped around Ms Thompson's neck, while the explanation he gave to gardai when asked to account for its presence was "simply not credible at all".

When asked to account for the presence of his DNA on the cord, the jury heard Mr McHugh told gardaí that he had been "in and out" of Ms Thompson's house "for the last three years".

A forensic scientist has told the trial that the blind cord contained a mixed DNA profile for which Mr McHugh could not be excluded as a minor contributor.

The jury has also heard that DNA recovered from jewellery found in the defendant's home also matched that of Ms Thompson.

It is also part of the prosecution's case that the accused can be seen in CCTV footage near the deceased's home on the night of the killing nearly three years ago.

Ms Murphy told the jury in her closing address that Mr McHugh chose to make no comment to gardaí when asked to account for his presence at Sandyhill Gardens between 1.25am and 2.50am on May 9th, 2022 as depicted on CCTV footage.

She said the jury was entitled to draw inference from the fact that Mr McHugh hadn't denied that the identification was accurate.